The MUP Show

In his article “Does minimum unit price work?” (Scotsman, 4 March), lawyer Stephen Mcgowan states that the decision on whether minimum unit price (MUP) should be made permanent is centred on 40-odd studies, and “only one out of all the studies suggests [MUP] had any discernible impact”.

But only eight of those studies looked at alcohol health harm and only one of those looked at deaths and hospital admissions caused by alcohol – the crucial measure of success or failure – and here MUP was seen to have saved lives in Scotland.

The other health-related studies which found “no discernible impact” were looking at specific issues such as ambulance callouts and emergency admissions. Indeed, for some studies, “no discernible impact” is a good result as far as MUP is concerned, as these were designed to check for unintended negative consequences such as crime, crossborder sales and illicit drug substitution.

Mr Mcgowan attempts to discredit the study which demonstrated reduced deaths and hospital admissions, saying it is “not real-world data”.

In fact the opposite is true. Having MUP in Scotland but not in England provides a realworld natural experiment. What the study found was that although alcohol deaths have risen in both Scotland and England in recent years, the rise in Scotland was significantly less than in England. Having ruled out alternative explanations, the study concluded that this difference was due to MUP. The reality is that had MUP not been in place, hundreds more Scots lives would have been lost.

Mr Mcgowan correctly points out that MUP is intended to reduce health inequalities. It seems strange that he fails to mention that MUP has done just that. Most of the lives saved are in the 40 per cent most deprived areas in Scotland.

Our MSPS will soon vote on whether MUP should continue and if so, at what rate. I trust that they will base their decision on a fairer and more complete assessment of the evidence than Mr Mcgowan’s article provides.

(Dr) Alastair Macgilchrist Chair, Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems,

Edinburgh