Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 24 May 2012
24 May 2012 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Bill
As a member of the Health and Sport Committee, I welcome the opportunity to speak in the debate. Alcohol minimum pricing is the latest step to change the drinking culture in Scotland. It is crucial that minimum pricing be implemented because, without it, our previous steps will prove to be less effective, because alcohol can be sold at rock-bottom prices.
As I have said previously in the chamber, before I was elected to the Parliament, I was not convinced that minimum pricing was the right way to change our drinking culture; I did not agree with the policy. However, after hearing the evidence that the Health and Sport Committee collected, I have changed my view. It is encouraging that all the major parties, apart from Scottish Labour, recognise the need for minimum pricing and are prepared to support the bill at stage 3. That type of cross-party approach will help to eradicate Scotland’s drinking culture. I implore the Labour Party to change its position on the bill and to vote for it at decision time.
The culture needs to be changed. Let us not lose track of why it is important that we pass the bill. Alcohol is connected with more than 60 types of disease as well as to disability and injury, and people in Scotland are drinking hazardously or harmfully. Scotland has one of the highest cirrhosis mortality rates in western Europe and is currently ranked eighth in the world for alcohol consumption per head of population. Alcohol is a contributory factor in a wide range of health and social problems, including accidental injury, violence and mental ill-health. Scotland has one of the highest rates of liver disease in the world and the figure continues to rise at an alarming rate.
Alcohol misuse affects not only the individual drinker, but has far-reaching consequences for friends and family, wider communities and society at large. Misuse of alcohol in Scotland costs £3.5 billion every year in direct and indirect costs. There is a growing consensus among professional bodies including the World Health Organization and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence that minimum pricing could be the most effective means to reduce alcohol consumption.
The University of Sheffield has carried out various studies and has done modelling on minimum unit pricing, and Professor Tim Stockwell from the University of Victoria in Canada has said that introducing a minimum price for alcohol can bring significant health and social benefits that can lead to significant savings in the health service. Research has also indicated that minimum pricing will target high-alcohol products that are sold cheaply. Such products are often consumed by harmful drinkers and are very popular with young drinkers.
It is clear that alcohol consumption is a problem in this country and that something needed to be done to ease the social and economic problems that are caused by it. Studies have shown that the best way of tackling the problem is by introducing a minimum price for alcohol. Alcohol is a serious national health problem that must be tackled because it has a significant impact on the health of our nation.
I say to Scottish Labour that if I can change my mind over this issue, I am sure that others—in particular Labour members—can change their minds, too. Scottish Labour must show leadership. Its do-nothing attitude has isolated the party in the Parliament. Labour members can bluster all they want, but they have got it wrong and they must now see that. I agree with Jackson Carlaw that Scottish Labour should support the bill now.
16:31
As I have said previously in the chamber, before I was elected to the Parliament, I was not convinced that minimum pricing was the right way to change our drinking culture; I did not agree with the policy. However, after hearing the evidence that the Health and Sport Committee collected, I have changed my view. It is encouraging that all the major parties, apart from Scottish Labour, recognise the need for minimum pricing and are prepared to support the bill at stage 3. That type of cross-party approach will help to eradicate Scotland’s drinking culture. I implore the Labour Party to change its position on the bill and to vote for it at decision time.
The culture needs to be changed. Let us not lose track of why it is important that we pass the bill. Alcohol is connected with more than 60 types of disease as well as to disability and injury, and people in Scotland are drinking hazardously or harmfully. Scotland has one of the highest cirrhosis mortality rates in western Europe and is currently ranked eighth in the world for alcohol consumption per head of population. Alcohol is a contributory factor in a wide range of health and social problems, including accidental injury, violence and mental ill-health. Scotland has one of the highest rates of liver disease in the world and the figure continues to rise at an alarming rate.
Alcohol misuse affects not only the individual drinker, but has far-reaching consequences for friends and family, wider communities and society at large. Misuse of alcohol in Scotland costs £3.5 billion every year in direct and indirect costs. There is a growing consensus among professional bodies including the World Health Organization and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence that minimum pricing could be the most effective means to reduce alcohol consumption.
The University of Sheffield has carried out various studies and has done modelling on minimum unit pricing, and Professor Tim Stockwell from the University of Victoria in Canada has said that introducing a minimum price for alcohol can bring significant health and social benefits that can lead to significant savings in the health service. Research has also indicated that minimum pricing will target high-alcohol products that are sold cheaply. Such products are often consumed by harmful drinkers and are very popular with young drinkers.
It is clear that alcohol consumption is a problem in this country and that something needed to be done to ease the social and economic problems that are caused by it. Studies have shown that the best way of tackling the problem is by introducing a minimum price for alcohol. Alcohol is a serious national health problem that must be tackled because it has a significant impact on the health of our nation.
I say to Scottish Labour that if I can change my mind over this issue, I am sure that others—in particular Labour members—can change their minds, too. Scottish Labour must show leadership. Its do-nothing attitude has isolated the party in the Parliament. Labour members can bluster all they want, but they have got it wrong and they must now see that. I agree with Jackson Carlaw that Scottish Labour should support the bill now.
16:31
In the same item of business
The Deputy Presiding Officer (John Scott)
Con
The next item of business is a debate on motion S4M-02967, in the name of Nicola Sturgeon, on the Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Bill. I call on Nicola...
The Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Cities Strategy (Nicola Sturgeon)
SNP
For the purposes of rule 9.11 of the standing orders, I wish to advise the Parliament that Her Majesty, having been informed of the purport of the Alcohol (M...
Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab)
Lab
Will the cabinet secretary take an intervention?
Nicola Sturgeon
SNP
If Jackie Baillie wants to comment on Diane Abbott’s support for the Scottish Government, I will be delighted to take an intervention.
Jackie Baillie
Lab
I thank the cabinet secretary for her generosity. First it was the First Minister, and now the Deputy First Minister is following Diane Abbott. I am delighte...
Nicola Sturgeon
SNP
What Jackie Baillie does not tell members is that, before saying that, Yvette Cooper said that she supported minimum pricing. That is the position of Yvette ...
Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab)
Lab
I, too, welcome the opportunity to participate in the stage 3 debate on minimum pricing, and I too record my thanks to all involved.Throughout the passage of...
Margo MacDonald (Lothian) (Ind)
Ind
Could the member briefly examine whether that figure of 25 per cent is a mean figure across the country? I doubt that it is. I am sure that there are areas o...
Jackie Baillie
Lab
I think that the figure varies by income, which I think is the point that the member is making. I am sure that people will look forward to drinking more with...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
Con
I am afraid that the member is running out of time.
Jackie Baillie
Lab
—of large supermarkets at the expense of hard-working public services.I move amendment S4M-02967.1, to insert at end:“but, in so doing, strongly believes tha...
Jackson Carlaw (West Scotland) (Con)
Con
Today is a significant day. Alcohol minimum unit pricing has been the centre of debate in the current session and the previous session of Parliament, almost ...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
Con
We move to the open debate. Speeches should be of four minutes.16:06
Bob Doris (Glasgow) (SNP)
SNP
The arguments against minimum pricing on the basis of potential supermarket profits or increased revenues have been well and truly exposed this afternoon as ...
Margo MacDonald
Ind
I wonder if the member would like to answer a question for me. What does he see as the result of this measure? Does he see everyone drinking a little less or...
Bob Doris
SNP
It is not how I see it; it is what the evidence points to, which is that the most harmful drinkers will be most affected by these measures. That is what the ...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
Con
Yes.
Bob Doris
SNP
Oh dear. I will be brief.The health benefits of minimum pricing differ according to which group we are talking about. It is said that minimum pricing will ha...
Sandra White (Glasgow Kelvin) (SNP)
SNP
I am grateful to be able to speak in the debate, given that I am not a member of the Health and Sport Committee.I want to look at the bill in a slightly diff...
Graeme Pearson (South Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
I thank Jackie Baillie for covering most of the ground on the thinking behind Labour’s approach to the bill. Equally, I thank Sandra White and Bob Doris, who...
John Mason (Glasgow Shettleston) (SNP)
SNP
Will the member take an intervention on that point?
The Presiding Officer (Tricia Marwick)
NPA
The member has no time. He has precisely 10 seconds left.
Graeme Pearson
Lab
I support the amendment in Jackie Baillie’s name.16:19
Kenneth Gibson (Cunninghame North) (SNP)
SNP
I have to say that I do not agree with the cabinet secretary because I do not think that Labour’s pitiful opposition to the bill is a fig leaf so much as it ...
Willie Rennie (Mid Scotland and Fife) (LD)
LD
I thank Nicola Sturgeon for pioneering the bill. It is pioneering legislation and she is out there in front, proposing a measure that a lot of people will no...
Richard Lyle (Central Scotland) (SNP)
SNP
As a member of the Health and Sport Committee, I welcome the opportunity to speak in the debate. Alcohol minimum pricing is the latest step to change the dri...
Alison Johnstone (Lothian) (Green)
Green
I am very pleased that we are introducing minimum pricing of alcohol. The Scottish Greens have supported the bill in this session and we supported the simila...
Fiona McLeod (Strathkelvin and Bearsden) (SNP)
SNP
I welcome the debate that we have had, I welcome the bill and I welcome the fact that, at 5 o’clock tonight, it will become the law of Scotland. I also welco...
Jackson Carlaw
Con
This has been a short but slightly depressing debate in the sense that, even at this late stage, the argument about the bill has continued even though, after...
Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab)
Lab
In 2001, as the Deputy Minister for Justice, I recognised that Scotland had a growing problem with alcohol and that we were well into the third wave in our h...