Minimum pricing alone cannot change Scots' booze culture

After more than a decade of health campaigns, TV advertising, education programmes and countless "alcohol awareness" strategies, not only are Scots drinking far more than the rest of the UK, but the gap between Scotland and the rest of the UK is widening.

Read in conjunction with a separate report also published today on alcohol pricing, it is hard not to feel a sense of helplessness. The figures paint a depressing picture of a country that is not only heavily out-drinking its neighbours, but is doing so outside of the socialising influence of the public house or restaurant. So-called "on-sales", that is, alcohol sold in licensed premises, account for 32 per cent of all drink sold. Sales of alcohol in supermarkets and shops account for more than double this total — 68 per cent. The average price in bars and hotels is 1.31 per unit of alcohol, while the price per unit if bought in shops is 43p. Some will maintain that the smoking ban has played a part in the shift from pub drinking to drinking at home. But the main driver is price.

All told, almost 51 million litres of pure alcohol were sold in Scotland last year. It works out an average per person of 23.6 units a week — 24 per cent higher than in England and Wales. Already the figures are being cited as clincher arguments for minimum pricing legislation. Certainly the arguments, given figures like these, look compelling. But this troubling litany of statistics cuts both ways. For such a regime to make any impact on the figures being reported, the minimum price would need to be Draconian. So ingrained is the culture of heavy alcohol consumption in Scotland — there is barely a social event that does not have alcohol as a central feature — that even a substantial price penalty would struggle to make an impact. The result would be an impost that would penalise the modest occasional drinker.

Perhaps that is the reason why the Scottish Government has been reluctant to set a precise figure for the minimum price that it has in mind. So long as this remains the case, the proposal for the minimum pricing of alcohol remains a principle rather than a specific policy around which public support can be marshalled.

But there is another reason for caution. Minimum pricing cannot be the one single bullet that will solve this problem. It cannot on its own bring about the profound change in attitudes to alcohol and its ubiquitous status in everyday life if any substantial improvement is to be achieved. This will require a bar-bell approach of serious and sustained education at almost every age level in schools and the imposition of sanctions through fines in cases of damage caused by alcohol, not even ruling out charges for those requiring medical treatment as a result of damage caused by excessive drinking.

This is an enormous challenge facing Scotland, and it is going to require serious and sustained commitment on a wide series of fronts if any progress is to be made. One thing is for sure. We can't go on like this.