Minimum alcohol price would save "cash and lives" in Scotland
03 September 2010 09:25
A minimum price for alcohol of 45p a unit would save Scotland more than £700 million in 10 years, Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said today.
Ms Sturgeon said that changing the law so alcohol could not be sold cheaper than that would mean 50 fewer deaths from alcohol in the first year alone.
Speaking as the proposed minimum price was announced, she said: "This policy will very quickly make big inroads into the big problem of alcohol misuse we have in Scotland."
Plans to bring in a minimum price per unit for alcohol form a key part of the SNP administration's bid to tackle Scotland's drink problem - which is estimated to cost the country £3.56 billion a year.
While the policy has won support from the medical profession and others, the main opposition parties in Scotland - Labour, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats - are all against the measure and have vowed to vote it down.
However, Ms Sturgeon said today: "We have, I think, a golden opportunity to be bold and to face up to a big problem that is costing all of us dear in Scotland.
"We've done it before - we did it on the smoking ban. I think people forget, now the smoking ban has been such a success, how controversial it was when it was going through Parliament, and it is worth reflecting that if the SNP, then in opposition, had taken the same attitude to the smoking ban that Labour is taking now to minimum pricing, we would not have a smoking ban in Scotland today and we would all be a lot worse off for that."
If a minimum price of 45p was introduced, it would mean a two-litre bottle of supermarket-brand cider would treble in price from about £1.32 at the moment to almost £3.80, while supermarket-brand vodka would go up from about £8 currently to about £11.80.
Whisky from Asda and Tesco would increase from £9.20 and £9.95, to £12.60, according to figures provided by the Scottish Government.
But there would be no change for Bell's, Whyte & Mackay or Johnnie Walker, which all currently retail above £14.
The new minimum price would see many beers and lagers go up in price, with four cans of Tennent's Super lager or Carlsberg Special Brew going up from about £6 to £8.10. And 24-bottle packs of Stella Artois would rise from £16.29 in Asda to £18.53, according to the Government figures.
Retail news is updated every weekday and is provided courtesy of: 
