The anonymous grouse? Plain labels for alcohol examined at Westminster

AN INFLUENTIAL House of Commons committee is considering a measure that could see some of Scotland’s most famous whisky labels removed from bottles as part of a clampdown on excessive drinking.

The Health Select Committee, which is to hold an inquiry into the UK Government’s recently published alcohol strategy, will look into a series of proposals including plain packaging for alcohol sold in shops, similar to a plan being considered for cigarette packets.

Yesterday MPs were warned that removing well-known trademark images such as Johnnie Walker’s striding man and the Famous Grouse on bottles, could damage the Scotch whisky industry, which is worth £4 billion in exports alone.

Labelling of alcoholic products is currently reserved to the UK Government, which means that if Westminster eventually agreed a ban it would affect shops and products across the whole of the UK, including Scotland.

It would hit all parts of the alcohol industry, but whisky producers believe it would be particularly damaging for them.

Campbell Evans from the Scotch Whisky Association told The Scotsman that while a plain packaging measure might be workable for tobacco products, it would be far harder to implement for alcohol.

He said: “The UK has one of the most complicated and sophisticated alcohol markets in the world and it would be far harder to introduce.”

He went on: “People need to know what it is they are drinking, so the labelling of the product is very important for the whisky industry.

“It’s in the interests of the British economy that this product remains successful and supported, not hindered.”

SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson MP, whose Moray constituency is home to more than half of all of Scotland’s distilleries, said: “With figures out this week showing that Scotland’s food and drink industry is booming, and an especially strong performance from the whisky industry, this is a sector that we want to promote.”

He added: “The committee is right to examine all of these issues, but we need a sensible debate which makes the distinction between cheap-as-water alcopops and premium products like malt whisky.”

Among the other items on the committee’s agenda are the UK Government’s proposal to introduce a minimum price of 40p per unit for off-sales and clampdown on discounted alcoholic products. The measure, which the SNP Government has already introduced at Holyrood, has divided the coalition, with opposition coming from Tory backbenchers who see it as anti-free trade.

The committee will also consider whether the legal age of drinking should be raised and whether the UK Government should have a more co-ordinated strategy with devolved administrations where health and education measures relating to alcohol are largely devolved.

Last night the SNP warned against the proposal of plain packaging. A spokeswoman from Downing Street yesterday made it clear that the consideration of plain packaging is not part of the UK government’s own consultation.

She said: “This is not a government proposal and is not one of the measures we are considering. It is something that has been raised by the health committee in its own inquiry.”

The deadline for submitting written evidence to the health committee consultation is 8 May 2012.