Commenting on the Scottish Government announcement on the
continuation of Minimum Unit Pricing of Alcohol, Ewan
MacDonald-Russell, Deputy Head of the Scottish Retail
Consortium, said:
“Retailers worked collaboratively with the Scottish Government to
effectively deliver Minimum Unit Pricing of Alcohol in 2018. We
support the continuation of the policy and have worked with
government to explain how a rise in MUP could be pragmatically
implemented by retailers considering a higher price will impact
more businesses, products, and suppliers. We therefore welcome
the announcement there will be a fair implementation period to
allow retailers to update systems, make decisions on ranging, and
be ready to increase prices from September. That will also
provide time for the Scottish Government to run a wide-ranging
campaign as they did in 2018 to ensure customers are aware price
rises are the result of this policy, which will hopefully lessen
the chances of friction between shoppers and store colleagues.
“However, we wholeheartedly reject the unevidenced and
unreasonable calls from campaign groups for retailers to face new
levies, or a surtax, because of this policy. Research
commissioned by Public Health Scotland found the economic
performance of the alcoholic drinks industry was not
significantly impacted by MUP. There is no evidence retailers
have significantly benefitted from the policy, beyond the wider
health benefits which accrue from reduced consumption of products
in scope of MUP. Any mooted tax rises are nothing more than a
thinly veiled cash grab at the expense of an industry already
under immense pressure.”
Ends
The SRC’s consultation response to the continuation of MUP can be
read in full here: https://brc.org.uk/news/corporate-affairs/src-response-to-scottish-government-consultation-on-continuing-mup/
