The Hangover: The Cost Of Minimum Alcohol Pricing In Scotland

6th May 2022

Minimum unit pricing (MUP) sets a floor price on a unit of alcohol to prevent the sale of ‘cheap' drinks, with the aim of reducing alcoholrelated harm. MUP was introduced in Scotland on 1 May 2018 at 50p per unit. This study estimates the financial cost to consumers in the four years since implementation.

Using sales data from the Public Health Scotland evaluation, we compare off-trade alcohol sales in Scotland post-implementation with a counterfactual based on sales figures from England and Wales.

In 2019, we estimate that off-trade sales in Scotland were four per cent lower than they would have been in the absence of MUP. This finding is similar to other published estimates. Compared to the counterfactual and excluding sales from discount retailers, 9.7 million fewer litres of pure alcohol were sold below 50p/unit, but an extra 8.2 million litres were sold at 50-64p/unit and a further 0.4 million litres were sold above 70p. The net additional cost of MUP to consumers was £93.6 million.

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