A UK-wide limit on how cheaply drink can be sold should be introduced as an alternative to the Scottish Government’s minimum pricing policy.
The Alcohol Commission set up by the Labour Party has recommended a ban on selling beer, wine and spirits at below the “floor price” of the cost of production, plus the cost of duty and VAT.
The commission’s proposals are designed to target specific “problem” drinks such as cheap lagers and super-strength ciders and avoid putting in place a “blanket, discriminatory” pricing mechanism.
Under the proposals published yesterday, revenue would go to the UK Treasury and be reinvested in public health projects across Scotland instead of boosting retailers’ takings.
The commission was established to come up with ways of changing the nation’s “unhealthy” drinking habits – and it said the Scottish Parliament and other public bodies should lead by example and ban alcohol at all functions.
But Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon has dismissed the commission’s taxation proposal, which is backed by opposition MSPs and some drinks producers.
She said the only sensible way forward was to introduce minimum pricing.
Ms Sturgeon has urged opposition MSPs to support a trial period, and claimed the commission’s proposals amounted to “passing the buck to Westminster”.
Dr Brian Keighley, chairman of medical professional body BMA Scotland, said he was “disappointed” the commission had “failed to take into account the growing support” for minimum pricing among health professionals, the police and sections of the alcohol industry, including Scotland’s largest brewer, Tennent’s.
The commission also said the sponsorship of sport by alcohol producers should be scrapped and steps must be taken to move towards a ban on advertising alcohol in the media.
It added that a floor price was successfully introduced in France, and called for the consideration of a local levy on alcohol to be paid by retailers to provide additional resources for the emergency services.
Grampian Police Chief Constable Colin McKerracher is in favour of such a scheme.
Commission chairwoman Professor Sally Brown said: “We are agreed that increasing the price of alcohol should be part of a broader package to reduce levels of abuse.
“We are suggesting the floor price for alcohol should be the cost of the production of the alcohol, plus the duty, plus VAT.
“The Scottish Government should be pressing the UK Government, which is of course at the moment considering issues of this kind.”
The commission has warned that introducing minimum pricing, one of several measures contained in the SNP’s Alcohol Bill, could lead to a black market for drink.
Ms Sturgeon said the commission had made some “constructive” suggestions for debate.
But, she said, it had ducked the central issue of tackling the cost of alcohol being sold at “pocket money” prices in Scotland.
She said: “A ban on alcohol below the aggregate of duty and VAT is not a serious alternative to minimum pricing because it would create a price so low it would have no impact on the levels drunk – and therefore no impact on the harm and misery caused.
“Why leave it to a UK coalition government – which at best has shown a lukewarm response to tackling the issue of cost – when we could take better, more effective steps ourselves?”
Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said the commission had produced a “challenging and radical” report which reinforced the view that minimum pricing was flawed.
“We will use this report to inform our amendments to the legislation currently going through Holyrood and our thinking beyond the current bill,” she added.
Labour supports the view that alcohol should be banned at receptions held by public bodies to set an example.
Conservative health spokesman Murdo Fraser said the suggestion that alcohol should be separated from other products in supermarkets, not served at public receptions, and also banned from sports advertising was “a step too far”.
Wine and Spirit Trade Association spokesman Gavin Partington said while the body was pleased minimum pricing had been rejected, a ban on alcohol advertising would be “misguided” and could cost jobs.
The Liberal Democrats, brewery giant Molson Coors and the Scotch Whisky Association back the view that the best way to tackle alcohol abuse is through the tax system.