Scottish Government eyes 50p as minimum price per unit of alcohol

The Scottish Government has announced that its preferred minimum price for alcohol is 50p per unit.

The announcement came as the Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Bill was set to start the final stage of the parliamentary process.

As well as setting a minimum price for a unit of alcohol as a condition of licence, the Bill also sets the formula for calculating the minimum price. This is based on the strength of the alcohol, the volume of the alcohol and a price per unit of alcohol.

The Scottish Government had indicated in 2010 that its preferred price would be 45p per unit. It said the proposal for a minimum price of 50p per unit reflected inflation.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: “Cheap alcohol comes at a price and now is the time to tackle the toll that Scotland’s unhealthy relationship with alcohol is taking on our society.

“It’s no coincidence that as affordability has increased, alcohol-related hospital admissions have quadrupled, and it is shocking that half of our prisoners now say they were drunk when they committed the offence. It’s time for this to stop.”

Sturgeon insisted that introducing a minimum price per unit would enable Scotland to tackle these problems, “given the clear link between affordability and consumption”.

She claimed that there was now a groundswell of support for the policy, including from significant parts of the drinks and licensed trade industry.

The Scottish Government cited research by the University of Sheffield which estimated that in the first year alone a minimum price of 50p would see 60 fewer deaths, 1,600 fewer hospital admissions, a total value of harm reduction of £64m, and around 3,500 fewer crimes per year.