Minimum unit pricing of alcohol - sales to trade: consultation analysis

2. Introduction

2.1 Minimum Unit Pricing was introduced on 1st May 2018. The relevant legislation is the Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Act 2012 ("the 2012 Act") which amended the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 ("the 2005 Act"), and makes Minimum Unit Pricing a mandatory condition of a premises and occasional licence. This means that, in order to comply with a premises and occasional licence, alcohol cannot be sold on those premises below the Minimum Unit Price. The 2012 Act also mentioned the 2005 Act to give the Scottish Ministers the power to specify by order the minimum price per unit. The Alcohol (Minimum Price per Unit) (Scotland) Order 2018 ("the 2018 Order") came into force on 1st May 2018 and set the minimum price at 50 pence per unit of alcohol.

2.2 Prior to the implementation of Minimum Unit Pricing, the Scottish Government held discussions with various representatives in the alcohol industry on the process of implementation. During some of these discussions a very specific issue relating to wholesalers and the operation of the 2005 Act came to light. It was also raised at the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport's appearance at the Health and Sport Committee on 17th April 2018^[1] in connection with the scrutiny of the 2018 Order.

2.3 The issue which arose is that there are differing views within the licensing community on whether a wholesaler with a premises licence should apply Minimum Unit Pricing to sales to trade or whether sales to trade from those licensed premises are exempt from Minimum Unit Pricing. There is no intention, and there never has been any intention, by the Scottish Government that Minimum Unit Pricing would apply to sales to trade. The policy is that only sales of alcohol which are not sales to trade should be subject to the minimum price.

2.4 The Scottish Government considers a legislative change is helpful to clarify the position for certain wholesalers as regards compliance with Minimum Unit Pricing. The Scottish Ministers ran a public consultation from 3 August to 26 October 2018 on the text of the proposed draft amendment contained in a draft amending instrument. The consultation asked for comments on the proposed draft amendment to the 2018 Order which set the Minimum Unit Price at 50 pence. The consultation was carried out through the Citizen Space online portal with one response received separately by email.

2.5 This report sets out a summary of the responses received to the consultation and provides an analysis of these. The findings presented summarise the views of those who participated in the consultation. Given that this was a self-selected group, these findings should not be seen as representing the views of the wider population. This report aims to provide a balanced account of the views submitted by respondents. However, the findings only provide a relatively high-level summary of a range of more detailed responses.