Projects & Research Partnerships

Introduction

Increasing the price of alcohol is among the most effective and cost-effective ways to reduce alcohol consumption and the harm it causes to people's health and wellbeing. The Scottish Government introduced a minimum price for a unit of alcohol (1 unit = 10ml or 8g of pure ethanol) on 1 May 2018. This meant retailers could not sell a unit of alcohol to consumers for less than £0.50.

The legislation enabling the minimum unit price (MUP) includes a sunset clause, meaning the policy will expire after six years unless the Scottish Parliament votes for it to continue. The Scottish Government therefore commissioned NHS Health Scotland (now part of Public Health Scotland [PHS]) to conduct an independent evaluation of the policy.

As part of this commission, PHS were required to present a report to the Scottish Government after the policy had been in place for five years. PHS designed a broad portfolio of evaluation studies to inform that report, including the project reported here.

Investigating the impact of MUP on people drinking at harmful levels

This project evaluated the impact of Scotland's MUP policy on people drinking at harmful levels, including those with alcohol dependence. The standard UK definition for harmful drinking (also known as high risk drinking) is consuming more than 35 units a week for women or more than 50 units a week for men.

Alcohol dependence is the most severe form of harmful drinking and means having a physical or psychological dependence on alcohol (sometimes referred to as 'alcohol addiction' or 'alcoholism'). Only around one in five of people who drink at harmful levels meet the clinical definition for alcohol dependence.

The project investigated seven areas related to the impact of MUP on people drinking at harmful levels and, where possible, compared changes in Scotland with changes in Northern England (i.e. a control population that has broadly similar characteristics to Scotland and has been used in previous evaluations of MUP). The seven areas were:

1. Impacts on their alcohol purchasing and consumption patterns and alcohol dependence.
2. Strategies they use to respond to MUP, including any evidence of positive or negative effects of the policy beyond those intended by policy-makers and directly related to alcohol use.
3. Impacts on their health.
4. Impacts on their family members and carers.
5. Impacts on those living in remote or rural areas of Scotland.
6. Responses to MUP enacted by alcohol treatment services.
7. Additional factors unrelated to MUP that affected the above areas (e.g. policy changes unrelated to alcohol).