The Scottish Government insisted its minimum-pricing plans would save lives yesterday after a watchdog warned the policy could backfire and increase sales of cheap alcohol.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said the move would raise the profit retailers made from each bottle of low-cost alcohol, providing an incentive to sell more.
Ministers want every unit of alcohol to cost at least 50p, saying the move will save lives and cut incidents of alcohol-related harm.
A bottle of wine would cost at least £4.70 and a 70cl bottle of whisky no less than £14 under the scheme.
However, the OFT warned retailers would gain "additional profit for every unit of low cost alcohol they sell". The UK's consumer and competition authority said it was concerned that would give shops an "incentive to sell more rather than less low-cost alcohol".
It also warned a minimum price could set a dangerous precedent for politicians to intervene in the market.
The claims were made in evidence submitted by the OFT to the Commons Health Committee on David Cameron's plans to introduce a minimum price south of the Border. An OFT source said the concerns raised echoed those it had about the Scottish plans.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "International evidence shows minimum pricing will reduce consumption and reduce alcohol-related harm.
"The Scottish Government already has a process to evaluate minimum pricing and this will consider the impact of our strategy on individuals, communities, the alcohol industry, and Scotland as a whole."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article