Minimum Unit Pricing is saving Scottish lives

The Scotsman’s response to Public Health Scotland’s latest report on the impact of Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) on reducing alcohol harms in Scotland suggests that MUP should be abandoned because of an increase in sales of fortified wines such as Buckfast (15 November).

The focus risks missing the key finding of this research: MUP has successfully targeted the cheap, high strength products – such as high strength ciders – favoured by heavier drinkers who suffer the greatest harm. Buckfast is not and never has been cheap, and sales were increasing before the introduction of MUP. Even after the reported increase, sales of fortified wine only account for 4 per cent of total alcohol off-sales.

Far from being a “failing policy”, MUP has delivered an overall reduction in alcohol off-sales in Scotland of 3.5 per cent. In England, where there is no MUP, sales rose over the same period.

Early indications suggest that MUP has also reduced harm with a reduction in alcohol-specific deaths of ten per cent in the first full year of operation.

MUP’S effectiveness is reliant on the level at which it is set, and modelling suggests that 50p – proposed when MUP was passed into law in 2012 – is now too low to have the desired effect. Instead of abandoning the policy, Scotland should uprate MUP to a more effective level. This would help to reduce the tragically high toll of deaths because of alcohol in Scotland.

Since its implementation in 2018, we have seen that MUP is an effective population-level measure to reduce alcohol harms and, contrary to your editorial, the new Public Health Scotland report supports this.

(DR) ALASTAIR MACGILCHRIST Chair, Scottish Health Action on

Alcohol Problems ALISON DOUGLAS Chief Executive, Alcohol Focus

Scotland