Scotland expected to raise minimum alcohol price by 30 percent

United Kingdom | The minimum unit price (MUP) for alcoholic drinks in Scotland is poised to rise by 30 percent under measures to control alcohol-related deaths and hospitalisations. It will go up from GBP 0.50 to GBP 0.65 (USD 0.82) in May, six years after Scotland became the first country in the world to introduce the policy. The Scottish Parliament still needs to approve the increase.

When MUP was implemented in 2018 ‒ after the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) had lost a lengthy legal battle against it ‒ the GBP 0.50 unit price was supposed to be in place for six years before the measure was to be reviewed. Originally, MUP targeted cheap ciders and spirits, which were blamed for all kinds of negative effects on public health, including a low life expectancy.

A boy born in Scotland today will live to 76.5 years on average, a girl just under 81. There is also a 14-year gap for male life expectancy between the poorest and the richest Scots. It is 11 years for women. In fact, Scotland’s figures are the worst in western Europe.

Alcohol will become far more expensive

The Scottish government (a coalition of the Scottish National Party and the Greens) set up a MUP consultation last year, which debated various rates, including one which would have pushed MUP up to over GBP 0.80.

Still, even the lower GBP 0.65 rate will be welcomed by health campaigners, who have been pressing for the minimum price to increase, since early results showed no significant change in behaviour among heavy users. A review, published last year, revealed that between 2018 and the end of 2020, alcohol sales in Scotland declined by only 3 percent.

Retailers make excess profits

The new MUP will hike the price of the cheapest bottle of whisky from GBP 14 to GBP 18.20 (USD 22.90), vodka to GBP 16.90 and a four-pack of basic lager to GBP 4.58.

Industry and trade association, on the other hand, have been arguing that MUP is an ineffective or unfair way to combat alcohol abuse, and unjustifiable during a cost-of-living crisis. The whisky industry said last year that MUP will penalise the vast majority who do drink responsibly.

The MUP is not a tax. Any profits made are the retailers’ for keeping. Although the oppositional Scottish Labour party supports the policy, it has called for an additional alcohol levy on retailers to tax the additional profits retailers make from minimum pricing. The proceeds should be passed on directly to the National Health Service instead, Labour said.

Research estimates that retailers make about GBP 30 million (USD 38 million) per year in excess profits, because they pocket the difference between the minimum price and the wholesale cost of the drink.sale