Minimum Unit Pricing has ‘positive impact’ on health

Elena Whitham, the drugs and alcohol policy minister, has welcomed research from Public Health Scotland which concludes that Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) has saved lives, reduced hospital admissions and had a ‘positive impact’ on health.

In their final report of a series, researchers said that ‘robust, independent evaluation’ and the best-available, wide-ranging evidence drawing on 40 independent research publications, showed that MUP has been effective in its main goal of reducing alcohol harm with the reduction in deaths and hospital admissions specific to the timing of MUP implementation.

This follows a study published in March by PHS and University of Glasgow showing MUP reduced alcohol consumption by three per cent, deaths directly caused by alcohol consumption by 13.4 per cent and hospital admissions by 4.1 per cent compared to what would have happened if MUP had not been in place.