Raise alcohol unit pricing, say Liberal Democrats

Minimum unit pricing on alcohol should be raised to 60p to help tackle Scotland’s “problematic alcohol use”, the Liberal Democrats have said.

In the week marking the one-year anniversary of the introduction of a minimum price per unit of alcohol, health spokesman Alex Cole-hamilton has called for it to be increased from 50p to at least 60p.

Defending the proposed rise of 20 per cent, Mr Colehamilton told BBC Radio Scotland: “When we first set the price at 50p, that was back in 2012. The only reason it actually came in last year was that it was caught up in legal wrangling for those intervening years.

“Back then, that 50p would have affected threequarters of all alcoholic drinks but, because of inflation over that time, it now only affects about half.”