AMs vote to impose a minimum booze price
ASSEMBLY Members have passed a Bill that could see minimum alcohol prices introduced in Wales within months.
They voted by 45 votes to five to pass the Public Health (Minimum Price for Alcohol) (Wales) Bill, which will make it an offence to sell drinks below a specified price based on their alcoholic strength.
The minimum price levels have yet to be set.
Explaining the need for legislation, Health Secretary Vaughan Gething said: “There were over 500 alcohol-related deaths in Wales last year alone and over 54,000 alcohol-related hospital admissions last year alone.
“Direct healthcare costs attributable to alcohol amount to an estimated £159m in the last year alone. But even more of an issue is the devastation that lies behind those figures – the families, the communities and consequences for NHS staff and support services, as they all cope with the aftermath of alcohol-related death, disease and harm every day.
“This legislation provides us with an opportunity to make a significant difference. It gives us a chance to do more to address alcohol-related harm and, ultimately, gives us a chance to do more to try and save lives. Since we introduced the Bill to the Assembly last October, we’ve heard from a range of different public health experts and service providers. Many have recognised the difference that this legislation could make.”
But Shadow Health Secretary Angela Burns described the Bill as “yet another example of the Welsh Government rushing through shoddilyconstructed legislation in pursuit of a policy objective that none would argue with”.
She said: “You have refused to put the minimum unit price on the face of the Bill. There is no statutory starting point and therefore the Bill can be seen as an incomplete piece of legislation. It leaves manufacturers in limbo, business in a quandary and does nothing to reassure ordinary people that you are not intending to be punitive with devastating results for those on low incomes who have every right to enjoy alcohol as much as those whose wallets will feel less of an impact.”
Ms Burns said she was unconvinced that the potential for unlicensed, smuggled and counterfeit alcohol had been properly explored.
She added: “But my biggest concern is that you could be replacing one addiction with another. A number of charities, including some working with the homeless and others working with alcoholism and substance abuse, have highlighted the dangers of minimum unit pricing as a blunt, punitive instrument. There’s a lot of talk about evidence in relation to this legislation, but little evidence to suggest that these concerns have been allayed or even properly examined. Indeed, the health committee heard evidence from users of an alcohol recovery centre who said that higher prices could push drinkers towards other more harmful substances.”
Nevertheless, she said the Conservative group would back the Bill because it included a “sunset clause” on minimum pricing, meaning that unless regulations to extend the provision were introduced within six years of the Bill passing, minimum alcohol prices would automatically be scrapped.