Experts urge minimum alcohol pricing in England after survey shows success

[Northerner]

Campaigners have called for a minimum unit price (MUP) for alcohol in England after research showed it has reduced consumption in some of the heaviest drinking households in Scotland and Wales.

A 50p per unit price was introduced in Scotland in 2018 and an in-depth shopping survey two years on has found the policy has had a lasting impact.

A similar minimum unit price in Wales, brought in around the start of lockdown last year, has also brought positive change, the survey of 35,000 British households found.

Research by Newcastle University, published in the Lancet Public Health, showed the greatest reductions overall were in the purchase of ciders and spirits.

The impact was mainly seen in homes that bought the most alcohol – with the exception of high-purchasing households with the very lowest incomes, who did not change their habits despite the increase.

Experts urge minimum alcohol pricing in England after survey shows success

Policy in Scotland and Wales has reduced consumption in heaviest drinking households

www.theguardian.com

Typical stupid, empty response from the government

 

[mikeyB]

The impact in Scotland was hardest felt by the cheap strong “cider” drinkers, which upped the price from a couple of quid per litre to around £6. Interestingly for the price of wreck the hoose juice, Buckie (Buckfast Tonic Wine) didn’t go up much, only a few pence, it’s quite expensive anyway, but only the true hardman Scots drunk consumes that. And whisky prices didn’t rise at all, because most of the money goes to the revenue.

Nonethless, drink associated deaths have fallen in number in Scotland and Wales as a result. England will never do it, and here is the reason. It applies to all alcohol sales, so the subsidised bars in the House of Commons and Lords would have to comply. There are no bars in Holyrood or the Senedd. That’s why the repairs to the Parliament buildings are costing so much - the MPs won’t move out to an alternative building because they’d miss all the perks.