Drinkers in Scotland saw alcohol prices go up faster than those south of the border after minimum pricing laws were introduced, though one of the country's favourite tonics actually fell in price.
A new report has found that the cost of Buckfast fell after the Scottish Government's flagship minimum unit pricing (MUP) laws were introduced in 2018. The price of the fortified wine dropped from 67p per unit in 2017-18 to 65p the year after.
The law makes retailers charge at least 50p per unit of alcohol, and is intended as a way of reducing the appeal of cheap high-strength drinks. The Public Health Scotland report found that strong ciders and own-brand spirits rose the most in cost after the policy came into force.
Dr Karl Ferguson, of the health body, said: “In the first 12 months after MUP was implemented we found that, especially for products that were priced below 50p per unit of alcohol prior to MUP, prices went up, the amount sold in larger container sizes went down, and sales also declined. We also found that, because of the price increase, even in instances where the volume of sales went down, the value of sales remained fairly constant or increased.”
Public Health Scotland said the average price of alcoholic drinks in shops increased north of the border to a greater extent than in England and Wales over the same period. Average prices in Scotland increased in the first year of the law from 60p per unit to 66p, while in England and Wales it grew from 60p to 61p.
Supermarket prices rose by almost 18%, from 56p to 66p per unit, while in convenience stores they went from 63p to 67p. The steepest price rises were for strong ciders and perries in convenience stores and own-brand cider and spirits in supermarkets, many of which were below 50p per unit before the law was introduced.
But the research found products which increased least in average price, like some pre-mixed drinks, or those that fell, like some fortified wines, appeared most likely to see increased sales. Public Health Scotland looked at sales data between May 2016 and April 2019 as part of its investigation into the minimum pricing, which will expire unless MSPs vote to renew it in before May next year.
Changes were also seen in sales across different container sizes, including reductions in the amount sold in larger single-item containers, especially for some ciders and own-brand spirits in bottles of one litre and over, Public Health Scotland said. The amount of beer and cider sold in the largest multipacks also fell, while sales in smaller multipacks increased.
And, the research found, there was limited evidence that products were being introduced, discontinued or reformulated as a result of minimum pricing.
Alison Douglas, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said: “Increasing the price of alcohol is one of the most effective and cost-effective policy measures to reduce alcohol consumption and harm. This research shows that people in Scotland respond to price.
“We have changed what we buy and reduced how much we buy due to minimum unit pricing. As expected, we’ve seen the greatest decrease in sales of high strength, cheap products.
“In particular, some strong ciders have seen a 90% decrease in the natural volumes sold in convenience stores. We’ve also seen people switching to smaller size packs and lower strength products.
“The overall effect of these changes has been a reduction of 3.5% in total off-sales of alcohol, according to previous research.”
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