In light of the Health Select Committee’s report this week calling for minimum pricing for alcohol and further restrictions on the advertising of alcohol products, the article remains current, and has not been updated.

The chief medical officer made headlines recently with a proposal of £0.50 minimum price per litre per unit of alcohol, which in England and Wales was quickly rebuffed by the prime minister who said he didn’t want to penalise the responsible majority.  But Scotland, which has the power to decide its own policy, is driving forward with its plans for minimum pricing in its bid to counter binge drinking. The proposal is part of a new Health Bill to be debated later this year.

A £0.50 per litre per unit of alcohol minimum price would add more than £3.50 to the average price of a bottle of whisky in Scotland (36% more expensive).

Work done for the government by the University of Sheffield showed minimum pricing would reduce overall consumption, but, said Gavin Partington, head of communications for the Wine and Spirit Trade Associaion (WSTA), which represents the whole of the wine and spirit supply chain “it does not show such a policy would target so-called binge drinkers. In fact a growing number of politicians accept that minimum price is a blunt weapon that would put prices up for the majority but fail to target those who have the problem.” Which may explain Gordon Brown’s immediate distancing of himself from the proposal. 

Partington went on: “In fact levels of alcohol consumption in other Northern European countries such as Sweden, Finland, Ireland, where taxes on alcohol are very high, suggest that price may do little to deter those who are determined to consume alcohol to get drunk”, adding “proponents of minimum pricing have never adequately explained why it is those countries with low or zero taxation on alcohol and hence low prices, where there is far less of a problem with alcohol misuse.”

Everyone agrees binge-drinking needs to be tackled, but the evidence suggests this group of people is least influenced by rising prices. Indeed the government’s own Sheffield research found hazardous and harmful drinkers to be less sensitive to higher prices than moderate drinkers, in terms of their total alcohol consumption.

A different piece of work by the Centre for Economics and Business Research found “that if minimum pricing at 50 pence per unit was introduced in the UK, consumers would end up paying almost £1.8 billion per year more for alcohol products – the equivalent of £68 per household per year.” And that “the savings to wider society including NHS and policing costs, and costs to victims of crime would be around £200 million per year.”

The particular issue for Australian, and other southern hemisphere wines is their typically high alcohol content.  A 14.5% Aussie shiraz would cost about £5.40, but a 12% Italian white, only £4.50.

It is thought that minimum pricing would be illegal under EU competition law. Partington said: “We believe minimum pricing runs counter to both UK and European competition law though the Scottish Government continues to insist it is legally permissible.  It is impossible to get a definitive legal view until the Government has specified the legislative means by which it intends to introduce minimum pricing.”

The UK drinks industry is waiting to be hit with a mandatory code of practice, targeting irresponsible retail practices, after attempts at self-regulation have insufficiently impressed the government.  The plans will form a core strand of the government’s strategy to reduce alcohol-related harm, including binge-drinking and under-age drinking.

The mandatory conditions are not yet known, and consultation with industry on the code is taking place during the first quarter of 2009.  Proposals include:

• Banning irresponsible promotions in supermarkets and off licences. ‘Three for the price of two’ promotions have been mentioned in despatches, as have ‘all you can drink for £10′ and ‘women drink for free’ promotions.
• Requiring on-premises to offer a minimum glass size, such as 125ml (which used to be the ’standard’ measure a generation ago).
• requiring that consumers are able to see unit content of alcohol when they buy it
• ensuring that customers in supermarkets are not required to buy very large amounts of a product to take advantage of price discounts

The pricing and promotion of alcoholic drinks has been under a lot of scrutiny, though minimum pricing of alcohol has moved off the government’s agenda … whilst there is an economic downturn, so the idea is just shelved, not completely ruled out.

Licensing authorities will have new powers to stamp on problems in their areas, allowing specific premises and promotions to be targeted. Proposals include:

• limiting the sale of low-price alcohol if this is linked to local disorder, for example being confiscated from under 18s
• banning promotions such as happy hours, drinking games or organised pub crawls
• limiting the display or advertising of discounted price offers.

It is speculated that consumers who have choice restricted in their local stores may travel to neighbouring towns where such restrictions may not exist.

Promotional sales in supermarkets have been estimated at more than 50% of alcohol sold, though a University of Sheffield study into the effects of alcohol pricing and promotion, published by the Department of Health, found “a total ban on off-trade

discounting is estimated to reduce consumption by -2.8%”. The report also said tighter restrictions affected wine consumption more than other alcoholic beverages.

Gavin Partington, head of communications for The Wine and Spirit Trade Association, who are taking part in the consultation on behalf of drinks industries, said: “co-regulation remains an idea which is being discussed with government – the notion that we, as an industry, agree the content of a code with government which is then enforced in various different ways – by the industry, by local government, by central government.”

The WSTA also point out that existing legislation is not being enforced, for example, in England and Wales in 2006, only 8 people under 18 were taken to court for trying to purchase alcohol and only 11 were reprimanded.

Work already being done is having an effect. Latest figures for the government’s £10m ‘know your limits’ campaign show that 21% of people now know there are 3 units of alcohol in a large wine glass, up from 6%.

In May, a 12-week consultation period for the mandatory code was announced.

The UK already has the highest level of wine tax in the EU, and the fourth-highest spirit tax (after Sweden, Ireland and Finland). Yet, as in Australia, the UK is coming under the cosh for levels of binge drinking, under-age drinking, middle-class over-consumption etc. This is despite Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs figures showing total alcohol consumption fell from 9.4 to 8.9 litres per capita from 2004 to 2006.

The Department of Health says the social cost of alcohol abuse is between £17.7bn and £25.1bn. They calculate the cost of alcohol harm to the National Health Service to be £2.7bn.

In July the UK government published a consultation document, which is widely thought may lead to greater legislation over the alcohol drinks industries. But Jeremy Beadles, chief executive of the UK’s drinks industries lobbying body, the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) has said he thinks that before more legislation is introduced, the existing legislation could be put to better use, saying it’s not being fully enforced.

The size of glass is a significant measure being looked at. Twenty odd years ago the ’standard wineglass size’ in the UK was 125ml.  In many mainstream on trade outlets the smallest wine measure has become a 175ml glass, with 250ml being common or even the only size available.

One 250ml glass of Aussie shiraz, one of our favourite tipples, at 14% is 3.5 units of alcohol (a UK unit is 8g of alcohol compared to an Australian unit of 10g). Regardless of international diversity in measuring units, 3.5 units in the UK means that any woman drinking this single 250ml glass is consuming nearly double her recommended daily allowance.  Under some definitions, she is thus a binge-drinker, much like the recent Australian reports of guidelines suggesting two pints doth a binge drinker make.  

Other measures under review include restricting or banning ‘happy hours’; restricting ‘loss-leader’-type promotions on alcohol where the alcohol beverage is sold below cost in supermarkets to pull in consumers, who then complete their ‘big shop’ in the store; restricting the location and siting of alcohol in store, as well as things that the industry say are already growing practice under their self regulations codes, such as point of sale information highlighting health warnings, unit labelling and recommended drinking guidelines.  In May this year the UK government launched a £10 million campaign specifically about units of alcohol, and the industry has launched a ‘Know your drinks’ campaign to run in conjunction, with point of sale detailing, for example “Know your drinks…a 125ml glass of 12% ABV wine is 1.5 units.” 

Consultation (http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Consultations/Liveconsultations/DH_086412) on the government’s renewed alcohol strategy closes in October, just three months after it opened, giving some clue as to the speed at which the government is working on the alcohol issue. The price of alcohol is coming under particular scrutiny with a Sheffield University review into the effects of alcohol pricing, promotion and harm due to make its final report at the end of the year.