Whisky association fights pricing plan

Alternatives to Scottish Government’s aim proposed

Plans to use minimum pricing for alcohol to improve public health in Scotland are under attack at the UK’s highest court.

A QC for the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) has told the Supreme Court in London there are a variety of better ways to achieve the Scottish Government’s aim.

The SWA is arguing in a two-day hearing that minimum unit pricing is “disproportionate” and illegal under European law.

Aidan O’Neill QC told seven justices: “It is a political decision that pricing should be used to decrease alcohol consumption and improve public health.

“We point out that there are a whole number of ways in which pricing can legitimately be used in accordance with EU law to achieve those aims.”

Mr O’Neill said, in principle, raising excise duty might be one way of increasing the price and achieving the same health benefits.

The fresh challenge comes after the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Scotland’s top civil court, rejected the SWA’s appeal against the measure in October.

But judges at the same court later gave the whisky body permission to take its fight all the way to the UK’s top court.

The move is the latest step in an extended legal wrangle that began in 2012 over the proposals, which has delayed implementation of a policy aimed at tackling Scotland’s drink problem.

The SWA says alternative pricing measures would be less disruptive of free trade and less distortive of competition across the EU single market, and would have at least an equivalent level of effectiveness in achieving the aim of the Scottish Government to improve public health.

SWA chief executive Karen Betts said: “Minimum pricing schemes amount to non-tariff trade barriers and this is of real concern to our industry.

“Were other governments to follow the Scottish Government’s lead, the Scotch whisky industry, which is an important part of the Scottish economy, would be damaged and with it the jobs and communities which rely on the industry’s continued success.

“This risk to how we are able to trade internationally is now compounded by the uncertainties surrounding Brexit.”

Scotland’s health secretary Shona Robison said: “We’re looking forward to the judgment of the Supreme Court on Minimum Unit Pricing and if it is the positive outcome we hope for, we will move as quickly as is practicable to put the policy in place.”