Minimum pricing ‘must be got right’

Published on 31/10/2011 00:00

Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon yesterday said the Scottish Government will look at up-to-date evidence before introducing new proposals on the minimum pricing of alcohol.

She said that the SNP wanted to “get this right” after the previous legislation, which failed to get through parliament, set the price at 45p per unit.

Ms Sturgeon said: “I don’t think we can assume anything. We need to make sure that we are taking account all of the available evidence and that the evidence is up-to-date.

Rooney Anand, chief executive of brewer Greene King, which runs more than 2,000 properties in the UK, said he believed minimum pricing would “go to the very heart” of the problems associated with excessive drinking.

ANGUS HOWARTH