SWA chief speaks out against MUP study

The CEO of the Scotch Whisky Association has spoken put against a recent study which claimed a minimum pricing policy in the UK would mostly impact on “harmful” drinkers.

David Frost, CEO of the SWA, has criticised a study looking at the effects of a minimum pricing policy for alcohol as lacking “substantive evidence”

Researchers at the University of Sheffield conducted a study into how the British public might respond to a minimum unit pricing (MUP) policy, which would require a minimum charge of 45 pence per unit of alcohol.

They found that the policy would hit the 5% of the population whose alcohol consumption is characterised as “harmful” and had the potential to save up to 860 alcohol-related deaths a year, with little effect on moderate consumers.

David Frost, CEO of the SWA, has recently criticised the report, published in The Lancet, for lacking “substantive evidence”.

He claimed that harmful consumers may simply spend more on alcohol in order to maintain their consumption levels, adding that “equally, they might simply switch to illicit alcohol sources”.

While a minimum pricing policy was shelved by the UK Government in July last year, the SWA is currently challenging the policy which was passed by the Scottish Government in court.

Vocal opponents of MUP, the SWA has stood by its belief that the legislation contravenes EU trading laws and would be “ineffective” in combating Scotland’s consumption problems.

Frost adds that while the study maintained that “moderate consumers with low incomes” would be largely unaffected by the policy, it has the potential to cause the consumption of “higher-income hazardous drinkers” to “actually increase”.

“In short, we believe the report does nothing to undermine the logic behind the UK Government’s decision not to proceed with MUP last year,” said Frost.

“That fact – that minimum pricing would be ineffective – is one of the reasons why we at the Scotch Whisky Association are challenging the Scottish Government’s minimum pricing law in the courts.”