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Health and Sport Committee 22 September 2010

22 Sep 2010 · S3 · Health and Sport Committee

Item of business

Alcohol etc (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2

McKee, Ian SNP Lothians Watch on SPTV

As we know, the result of the vote is more or less preordained, so members will be relieved to hear that I do not intend to add greatly to the logorrhoea to which we have already been exposed on the subject.It is a bit rich of Richard Simpson to say that the Government has not listened to the evidence when his party dismissed the concept of minimum unit pricing on the day that the bill was published, before the committee had officially heard one shred of evidence. Those who complain loudly and volubly about weather forecasting would not go out in a small boat without having heard the shipping forecast, or get on board an aircraft with a captain who had ignored the Met Office report. Forecasting is well accepted—indeed, it has been accepted by members of Opposition parties, who have taken elements of the Sheffield report to boost their case but ignored other elements because those are weather forecasts. That is illogical.Almost all members have agreed that price has a part to play in dealing with the alcohol problem, and I believe that minimum unit pricing is the only pricing mechanism that has been suggested that has a chance of working. We heard about alternative methods last week when we took evidence from Labour’s commission. It suggested a pricing mechanism of cost plus alcohol tax plus VAT, but there would be many drawbacks to that. The commission itself accepted that there was absolutely no evidence for it, and that it had no idea how the cost of manufacture would be established or what tax changes would be required to produce a beneficial effect.If we rely on action by another Government, it will not necessarily agree with what this Government asks, and the problem in Scotland is much greater than it is in England. The Labour commission also accepted that if that system was implemented, it would succeed in raising the price of alcohol and put money into the pockets of retailers.Minimum unit pricing has peer-reviewed modelling evidence behind it—which has been accepted by Labour in other situations—and it has the support of health organisations, health boards and the police. We heard that evidence in committee; I am not just talking about private briefings or letters that I have received. Week after week, we heard evidence from royal colleges, health boards, health groups of all sorts and the police, and they were all in favour of minimum unit pricing.Every single director of public health in every single territorial health board in Scotland has supported minimum unit pricing. Those people are not members of the Scottish National Party—the Royal College of Physicians is not an SNP coterie, and nor is the Royal College of Psychiatrists. They are independent scientific people who have looked at the evidence, such as there is, and come to that conclusion. Today, we are going to turn down all of that on the grounds of a few submissions that have come mainly from alcohol manufacturers, supermarkets and retailers.As for the effect on poor people, we heard from Anne Ludbrook that 67 per cent of people in the lower deciles do not drink at all, and therefore her evidence about what drinkers consume relates to only 33 per cent. We heard evidence that the vast majority of people in the lower deciles who drink at all drink very little, so Richard Simpson’s example of the people who drink a bottle of vodka a week relates to a tiny minority.Those who successfully vote against minimum unit pricing—which looks as if it will happen today—having heard all the evidence and tested witnesses will have to live with their consciences as the effect of alcohol does its work, blighting the lives of thousands of Scots and causing unnecessary deaths.

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The Convener (Christine Grahame) SNP

Good morning and welcome to the 26th meeting in 2010 of the Health and Sport Committee. I remind everyone to switch off mobile phones and other electronic eq...

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Health and Sport Committee 22 September 2010

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