Will the Minister provide an assessment of the effectiveness of the Public Health (Minimum Price for Alcohol) (Wales) Act 2018?
The Public Health (Minimum Price for Alcohol) (Wales) Act 2018 (the Act) gives effect to the Welsh Government’s determination to provide a legislative basis for addressing some of the long-standing and specific health concerns around the effects of excess alcohol consumption in Wales. The ultimate aim of minimum pricing is to tackle alcohol-related harm, including alcohol-related hospital admissions and alcohol-related deaths, by reducing consumption amongst hazardous and harmful drinkers.
The Welsh Government has commissioned an evaluation of the Act. Four contracts have been awarded, looking at different aspects of implementation.
‘Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 and the Early Impact of Minimum Pricing for Alcohol on the Wider Population of Drinkers’ was published in March.
It followed the publication of ‘Assessing the impact of minimum pricing for alcohol on the wider population of drinkers’ (July 2021).
The fieldwork for the first full follow-up study will be published towards the end of this year. These reports will allow us to review progress with the policy.
A further follow-up will be undertaken, with final reports available approximately five years after implementation. It is therefore too early to conclude whether there is evidence that the policy is effective.
A separate study carried out by academics in Newcastle was published in the Lancet in May 2021. It concluded that in Wales, the introduction of MUP led to similar results to those observed in Scotland. For both Scotland and Wales, reductions in overall purchases of alcohol were largely restricted to households that bought the most alcohol.