A commission investigating ways to tackle alcohol abuse will consider the SNP’s minimum pricing plans, it was announced yesterday.
The body was set up by Labour to find alternatives to the Scottish Government policy being debated at parliament.
Professor Sally Brown, who is leading the panel, said it is “realistic” to expect that some experts will recommend the proposal when giving evidence.
The commission, launched in Edinburgh yesterday, will also investigate Labour’s call for a legal limit on caffeine in alcoholic drinks.
Such a move will ban Buckfast Tonic Wine, unless its caffeine level is reduced from 281mg per bottle to the suggested 150mg per litre.
The commission is looking at wider alcohol pricing proposals, a scheme to address under-age drinking, taxation and restricting advertising to children.
The government wants to set a minimum price per unit as part of its Alcohol Bill.
Prof Brown said: “It seems extremely unlikely that one would be able to make an impression on this field unless you have a kind of mix of actions. There isn’t going to be one magic bullet that is going to solve the problems that we face here.
“We know that previous experience has suggested that the price and accessibility are very central to the issues, but of course they’re not the only things.”
She said the commission will investigate the SNP’s preferred plan, adding: “We’re pretty realistic that it’s likely to come up, that some of the evidence we get will actually be recommending it and we will be looking at that in exactly the same way that we look at everything else.”
Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie MSP said she is “relaxed” about what the commission chooses to investigate.
She added: “We need to consider radical measures to reduce the level of problem drinking but minimum unit pricing is not the answer.”
SNP backbencher Michael Matheson MSP, who sits on Holyrood’s health committee, said: “(Labour’s) problem is they know minimum pricing is a key measure in tackling the problem, but as a result of petty politics they are refusing to acknowledge the evidence or to do their jobs as MSPs.”
The commission will report on its findings in April, before the Alcohol Bill is voted on at Holyrood. Members of the commission include former Labour MP and MSP Sam Galbraith, who has experience as a neurosurgeon, and Graeme Pearson, a former director of the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency.