Minimum unit alcohol price has 'lasting impact'

The introduction of minimum pricing of alcohol has had a lasting impact in Scotland and is starting to have an effect in Wales, a study has found.

Research from Newcastle University and published in the Lancet found alcohol sales fell by almost 8% after the policy was introduced in Scotland.

It became the first country in the world to bring in minimum unit pricing (MUP) for alcohol in May 2018, currently fixed at 50p per unit.

Wales introduced the policy last March.

Campaigners have called for it to be implemented in England and Northern Ireland.

The Republic of Ireland is due to introduce its own MUP policy on 1 January 2022.

Researchers found alcohol sales in Scotland fell by 7.7% after minimum pricing was brought in, when compared with the north east of England.

In Wales there was an 8.6% decrease in sales when compared with the west of England.

The study looked at data detailing more than 1.24 million separate alcohol sales between 2015 and 2018, and also in the first half of 2020 - with this period covering purchases by 35,000 households.

According to the research, published in Lancet Public Health, the impact of MUP was mainly seen in households that bought the most alcohol.

The study said: "For both Scotland and Wales, reductions in overall purchases of alcohol were largely restricted to households that bought the most alcohol."

It concluded MUP "is an effective alcohol policy option to reduce off-trade purchases of alcohol and should be widely considered".

However, the exception to this was those in high-purchasing, low-income homes, who did not seem to change their habits.

Overall, Prof Peter Anderson, from Newcastle University who led the research, said the findings showed "the introduction of a MUP in Scotland has made a significant impact on reducing alcohol levels, with a sustained drop in overall units bought by some of the highest-consuming households two years on".

He added: "We can now see that the introduction of a MUP in Wales at the beginning of March 2020 has had a similar impact to the one we saw in Scotland in 2018 and we hope to see a continued benefit."

He said MUP was an important step forward in addressing alcohol-related health problems and the social harm caused by over consumption.

Prof Sir Ian Gilmore, chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance, said: "This is powerful, real-world evidence of the success of minimum unit pricing as a harm reduction policy."

He called on the UK government to follow the lead of the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales and introduce minimum pricing for England.

Sir Ian said: "Westminster has said time and time again that it is waiting for evidence from Scotland and Wales on minimum unit pricing, meanwhile 80 people a day are dying from an alcohol-related cause."

Alison Douglas, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, described the research as "hugely encouraging" but said the current 50p minimum unit price in Scotland had been "significantly eroded by inflation".

It was initially set in 2012, with the introduction of the policy delayed by a lengthy legal challenge in the years before its introduction.

Ms Douglas urged the Scottish government to increase the unit price to at least 65p per unit, saying it would save more lives and prevent a new generation from developing a problematic relationship with alcohol.