Report Estimates Policy has Saved Hundreds of Lives
Research estimates that 156 deaths were averted each year following the SNP Scottish Government’s implementation of Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP).
The study comes from Public Health Scotland and the University of Glasgow. It indicates a 13.4% reduction in deaths, and a 4.1% reduction in hospital admissions wholly attributable to alcohol consumption in the first two and a half years after MUP was introduced in May 2018.
The report also concludes that the policy had reduced deaths and hospital admissions where alcohol consumption may have been a factor.
Researchers say they are confident there is a link between the introduction of MUP and the reduction in alcohol health harms. They also noted there had been significant reductions in deaths in areas of deprivation, suggesting MUP has helped reduce inequalities in alcohol-attributable deaths in Scotland.
The study – published by PHS and the Lancet – focused on the first two-and-half years of the policy:
It follows a previous report which estimated that alcohol sales had dropped by 3% after MUP. A report bringing together all the evaluation findings on MUP will be published in June this year.
I’m Graeme’s Parliamentary Assistant based at Holyrood, but I support his constituency work as well. Having been Caseworker to an Aberdeenshire MP some years prior, joining Graeme's team in 2019 was a return to this line of work from a role in fundraising.