The early impact of Scotland's minimum unit pricing policy on alcohol prices and sales

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (12) ◽  
pp. 1637-1656
Author(s):  
Irena Palamani Xhurxhi
Keyword(s):  
Pricing Policy ◽  
Unit Pricing ◽  
Alcohol Prices

scholarly journals Evaluation of Minimum Unit Pricing of Alcohol: A Mixed Method Natural Experiment in Scotland

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 3394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Beeston ◽  
Mark Robinson ◽  
Lucie Giles ◽  
Elinor Dickie ◽  
Jane Ford ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Final Decision ◽  
Pricing Policy ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
Licensed Premises ◽  
Alcoholic Drinks ◽  
Future Policy ◽  
Unit Pricing ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Important Evidence

In May 2018, Scotland became the first country in the world to implement minimum unit pricing (MUP) for all alcoholic drinks sold in licensed premises in Scotland. The use of a Sunset Clause in the MUP legislation was a factor in successfully resisting legal challenges by indicating that the final decision on a novel policy would depend on its impact. An overarching evaluation has been designed and the results will provide important evidence to inform the parliamentary vote on the future of MUP in Scotland. The evaluation uses a mixed methods portfolio of in-house, commissioned, and separately funded studies to assess the impact of MUP across multiple intended and unintended outcomes related to compliance, the alcoholic drinks industry, consumption, and health and social harms. Quantitative studies to measure impact use a suitable control where feasible. Qualitative studies assess impact and provide an understanding of the lived experience and mechanism of change for key sub-groups. As well as providing important evidence to inform the parliamentary vote, adding to the international evidence on impact and experience of alcohol pricing policy across a broad range of outcomes, this approach to evaluating novel policy interventions may provide guidance for future policy innovations.

scholarly journals A comparison of stakeholder networks across two pricing policy debates using discourse analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
S Hilton ◽  
C Buckton ◽  
G Fergie ◽  
T Henrichsen ◽  
P Leifeld
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
News Media ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Pricing Policy ◽  
Network Analyses ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
Similar Range ◽  
Unit Pricing ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Discourse Coalitions

Abstract Background Public health policy development is subject to a large number of stakeholders seeking to influence government thinking on policy options. One approach is via the news media. We compare the competing discourse coalitions evident in the UK public debate across two pricing policies, Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) for alcohol and the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL). Methods Existing discourse network analyses (DNA) for MUP and SDIL were harmonised in Visone to allow direct comparison. We applied a common tie-weight threshold to reduce ties to robust argumentative similarities and to maximise the identification of both network structures. We used network measures (size, density and EI index) to compare the two networks and principal coalitions. Results Both networks involve a similar range of stakeholder types and form two discourse coalitions representing proponents and opponents of the policies. The SDIL network is larger, particularly the proponents coalition with over three times as many nodes and a lower EI index. Both networks show tight discourse coalitions of manufactures and commercial analysts acting in opposition to policy supporters. The only actors that appear in both debates are politicians, government advisors, commercial analysts and supermarkets. While public health actors appear in both debates they appear siloed in their interests. Conclusions DNA enabled direct comparison of the discourse coalitions across two highly contested pricing policy debates, visualising the complex network of actors and relationships operating to influence policy-making via the media. Use of comparative DNA across policy debates shows promise for better understanding the common tactics of different unhealthy commodity industries (UCIs) to disrupt public health policies. Public health actors could improve their response to UCIs by seeking to work across policy and commodity arenas. Key messages We compared the competing discourse coalitions across two pricing policy debates, MUP and SDIL. Public health advocates could improve their response by working across policy arenas.

scholarly journals Policy windows and multiple streams: an analysis of alcohol pricing policy in England

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Hawkins ◽  
Jim McCambridge
Keyword(s):  
Complex Nature ◽  
Supporting Evidence ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
Multiple Streams ◽  
Pricing Policy ◽  
Conceptual Tool ◽  
Policy Windows ◽  
Unit Pricing ◽  
High Level ◽  
Heuristic Devices

This article adopts a multiple streams approach to examine the failure to implement minimum unit pricing (MUP) for alcohol in England. It demonstrates that the multiple streams model provides a valuable conceptual tool for explaining how and why policies are, and are not, enacted. However, it finds that while problem streams and policy streams are useful heuristic devices, in practice they may overlap and be mutually constitutive. The case of MUP also highlights the potential for policy spillover between jurisdictions and different policy contexts, showing both limits to, and the complex nature of, these processes. It shows the need for high level political commitment in order to implement controversial policies, even when they are backed by strong supporting evidence. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of civil society actors not just in bringing policy issues onto the agenda, but in supporting governments in adopting measures to address them.

scholarly journals Potential impact of minimum unit pricing on advertised alcoholic beverage prices

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan K. Noel
Keyword(s):  
Alcoholic Beverage ◽  
Inverse Correlation ◽  
Price Policy ◽  
Potential Effect ◽  
Unit Price ◽  
Alcoholic Beverages ◽  
Standard Drink ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Unit Pricing ◽  
Alcohol Prices

The current study sought to determine the potential effect of a minimum unit price policy on advertised prices for alcoholic beverages at an off-premise outlet. A free, weekly circular was monitored for advertised alcohol prices from July 2017 to June 2018. For each advertised price, the number of standard drinks per purchase, the price per standard drink, and the frequency of prices that would increase under a MUP policy similar to Scotland’s was determined. There was an inverse correlation between the number of standard drinks per purchase and the advertised price per standard drink for beer/malt beverages (r = -0.76, p < 0.001) and wine (r = -0.42, p < 0.001), which would be eliminated under MUP. Under MUP, 59.8% of advertised prices for beer/malt beverages would increase. Implementation of MUP may significantly impact beer and malt beverage prices in the off-premise location monitored in the study.

scholarly journals The Scottish case: minimum unit pricing for alcohol

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
S Hilton ◽  
S V Katikireddi
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Public Health Intervention ◽  
Alcohol Policy ◽  
Unit Price ◽  
Policy Network ◽  
Pricing Policy ◽  
Licensed Premises ◽  
Vested Interests ◽  
Unit Pricing

Abstract There have been longstanding social and public health concerns about the levels of harmful alcohol consumption in Scotland. The Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Act 2012 targets all alcohol sold through licensed premises in Scotland by ensuring it cannot be sold below a set minimum unit price. The pricing policy is currently set at 50p per unit of alcohol. Following a legal challenge and a vote in the Scottish Parliament, minimum unit pricing was implemented in Scotland on 1 May 2018. The aim of the Scottish alcohol policy has been to reduce the adverse public health consequences of alcohol consumption. It has also been identified as a potential measure for reducing health inequalities since alcohol-related harms are strongly socially patterned. The Scottish alcohol policy is important case to consider for a number of reasons. First, the nature of the policy differs. Rather than the introduction of a variable floor price, which may encourage switching in consumption from one product to another to maintain alcohol intake, minimum unit pricing introduces a price threshold that is uniform across all alcohol products. Second, minimum unit pricing is being introduced into a competitive commercial environment with strong vested interests, rather than a government-controlled monopoly. Third, the policy has been framed as a public health intervention, rather than primarily for revenue-raising reasons. Research on its development and evaluation will be considered to inform broader discussions on policy advocacy. Here we show a visualisation of the minimum unit pricing policy network to highlight how the public health community could work in more coordinated manner to support alcohol policy interventions.

scholarly journals ‘Tied up in a legal mess’: The alcohol industry's use of litigation to oppose minimum alcohol pricing in Scotland

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Hawkins ◽  
Jim McCambridge
Keyword(s):  
Policy Process ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Alcohol Policy ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Pricing Policy ◽  
Legal Challenges ◽  
Scottish Government ◽  
Unit Pricing ◽  
The Uk

This article examines the alcohol industry's legal challenges to minimum unit pricing (MUP) in Scotland through the stages heuristic of the policy process. It builds on previous studies of alcohol pricing policy in Scotland and across the UK, and of the use of legal challenges by health harming industries to oppose health policy globally. Having failed to prevent MUP passing into law, industry actors sought to frustrate the implementation of the legislation via challenges in the Scottish, European and UK courts. However, the relevance of legal challenges is not limited to the post-legislative stage of the policy process but was foreshadowed in all earlier stages of the policy process. The potential for a legal challenge to MUP, and the alcohol industry's clearly articulated intention to pursue such action, was used by industry actors to seek to prevent the adoption of MUP in the agenda setting, policy formulation and legislative stages and created significant ‘regulatory chill’ in other areas of Scottish and UK alcohol policy. Litigation, and the prospect of it, was thus part of a coherent and integrated long-term strategy which adapted to changes in the political climate and to different stages in the policy process. While both the rhetoric and reality of litigation failed to prevent policy implementation, it succeeded in causing a delay of six years, imposing significant costs on the Scottish government and creating policy inertia in Scottish alcohol policy subsequently. Moreover, the inclusion of a ‘sunset clause’ in the legislation, requiring ongoing evaluation of the policy's effects, presents additional opportunities for the industry to reverse MUP. Thus, industry strategies to undermine MUP and delay further alcohol policy developments require ongoing attention by policy actors and scholars.

Designing water-pricing policy, tariffs and subsidies to help the poor

Waterlines ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 4-8
Author(s):  
Clarissa Brocklehurst ◽  
Jan Janssens ◽  
Pete Kolsky
Keyword(s):  
Water Pricing ◽  
Pricing Policy ◽  
The Poor
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