Public Health Scotland Study of Minimum Unit Pricing

That the Parliament welcomes the publication of a new Public Health Scotland study in collaboration with the University of Glasgow, which forms part of the independent evaluation of minimum unit pricing (MUP) and focuses on its impact on health harms; recalls that a key aim of MUP was to reduce alcohol health harm; notes the findings, which show that, following more than two and a half years of implementation, an estimated 150 deaths and 400 hospital admissions, wholly attributable to alcohol consumption, were averted each year due to the policy; understands that more lives have been saved during this period than was expected over the first five years of the policy; further understands that the greatest reductions were seen for chronic alcohol health harms, in particular alcoholic liver disease; notes that the largest reductions were found for males, and for those living in the 40% most deprived areas, groups which are known to experience disproportionately high levels of alcohol health harms in Scotland; understands that this evidence of positive health benefits follows a report from Public Health Scotland in January 2023, which found no evidence of MUP causing a detrimental effect on the alcoholic drinks industry, and looks forward to Public Health Scotland’s final evaluation report on MUP, due in June 2023.