Whisky industry is accused of blocking bid to cut drink deaths

Figures show a fall in alcohol sales in Scotland has stalled

Source: The Times

Mike Wade

March 1 2016

The Scottish government’s campaign to combat alcohol abuse has been stopped in its tracks by the opposition of the whisky industry, campaigners have claimed.

Figures from NHS Health Scotland show that a fall in alcohol sales has stalled, with sales north of the border still 20 per cent higher than in England and Wales. Every day, three people die in Scotland because of alcohol, the health service says.

Minimum pricing, central to the government’s alcohol strategy, has not been implemented because of a legal challenge brought by the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) in 2012.

Last night, ministers, senior NHS officials and pressure groups united to criticise the SWA.

Maureen Watt, the public health minister, said the final report of the Monitoring and Evaluating Scotland’s Alcohol Strategy (MESAS) programme had made it clear that the drinks industry’s legal challenge had “impacted on the progress made.”

She said: “Given the link between consumption and harm, and evidence that affordability is a key driver of increased consumption, addressing price is an important element of any long-term strategy to tackle alcohol misuse.”

Eric Carlin, director of Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems, said it was “outrageous” that a four-year legal challenge by the SWA had stymied the alcohol strategy.

“The law on minimum unit pricing was passed in 2012 without a single vote against it,” Mr Carlin said. “We are calling for more restrictions on advertising and sports sponsorship, and we are looking at licensing regulations but minimum pricing is fundamental.”

Health campaigners claim that the major Scotch whisky brands have a vested interest in opposing minimum pricing, because it is a threat to the profitability of their non-whisky drinks.

Last night the claim was dismissed by the SWA, which said that 80 per cent of blended whiskies would be affected by minimum pricing. The SWA insisted that the government’s own research showed that a minimum price would not reduce the number of people drinking at hazardous levels. It said it was “a regressive policy that hits responsible drinkers, in particular those with the lowest incomes.”

The MESAS report concluded that several components of the strategy had been effective since 2010. Over half a million “interventions” by medical professionals had reached 43 per cent of harmful and hazardous drinkers, while a tripling of investment in specialist care services had helped cut waiting times for people seeking treatment.

Six out of ten people recognise that alcohol is the drug or substance causing most harm in Scotland, while a ban multi-buy promotions has driven a 4 per cent reduction in wine sales.

The fate of minimum pricing is likely to be decided in an Edinburgh court this summer. In December, the European Court of Justice ruled that the Scottish government’s minimum pricing breached EU free-trade laws.

Returning the case to the Court of Session, the ECJ said the policy could be justified on health grounds under EU law only if more proportionate and effective than using general taxation.

Mr Carlin said the ECJ had effectively ruled that minimum pricing was a legitimate public health intervention.

Clare Beeston, who led the MESAS evaluation team, said: “We need to continue to push for the most effective ways to reduce the amount Scotland drinks. A minimum unit price is one of the best ways to reduce drinking in the heaviest drinkers and tackle the alcohol-related health inequalities.”

Figures released last month by the SWA said the industry contributed £3.3 billion to the UK economy.

David Frost, SWA chief executive, welcomed the MESAS study and said the whisky industry had played “a full and positive part in delivering a range of initiatives” which had helped cut deaths from alcoholic liver disease.