The Scottish case: minimum unit pricing for alcohol

Abstract

Abstract There have been longstanding social and public health concerns about the levels of harmful alcohol consumption in Scotland. The Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Act 2012 targets all alcohol sold through licensed premises in Scotland by ensuring it cannot be sold below a set minimum unit price. The pricing policy is currently set at 50p per unit of alcohol. Following a legal challenge and a vote in the Scottish Parliament, minimum unit pricing was implemented in Scotland on 1 May 2018. The aim of the Scottish alcohol policy has been to reduce the adverse public health consequences of alcohol consumption. It has also been identified as a potential measure for reducing health inequalities since alcohol-related harms are strongly socially patterned. The Scottish alcohol policy is important case to consider for a number of reasons. First, the nature of the policy differs. Rather than the introduction of a variable floor price, which may encourage switching in consumption from one product to another to maintain alcohol intake, minimum unit pricing introduces a price threshold that is uniform across all alcohol products. Second, minimum unit pricing is being introduced into a competitive commercial environment with strong vested interests, rather than a government-controlled monopoly. Third, the policy has been framed as a public health intervention, rather than primarily for revenue-raising reasons. Research on its development and evaluation will be considered to inform broader discussions on policy advocacy. Here we show a visualisation of the minimum unit pricing policy network to highlight how the public health community could work in more coordinated manner to support alcohol policy interventions.