Scotland has a long-standing issue with alcohol-related deaths. The rate of deaths is higher than in England and Wales – but this issue existed well before the Scottish Parliament was even set up.

Of course Unionists like to focus on the current differences with England and Wales and will always ignore the history. This is because when you do look back, it becomes clear who’s been working hardest to reduce alcohol-related deaths.

Whilst the SNP has been in charge in Scotland, they’ve been reducing rapidly. Conversely, whether in England or Wales Labour has managed a rising increase. Similarly the Tories more recently have delivered even faster increases in the death rate.

Minimum Unit Pricing

Clearly the SNP has introduced successful measures to counter Scotland’s high death rate. There are many measures in place, including Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP). MUP is a recent measure – and one that the Unionists like to pick up on, perhaps because of the high level of donations they receive from the related industry.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) led an independent evaluation of minimum unit pricing. It was one of the most thoroughly evaluated policies ever in Scotland.

Its key evaluation findings were:

Sources

Alcohol and drugs – gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Alcohol Minimum Pricing | Alcohol Focus Scotland (alcohol-focus-scotland.org.uk)