Policing and Crime Bill
4:00 pm
Don Shenker: The point about people who turn up to pubs drunk, having consumed alcohol from supermarkets and off-licences, goes back to the point about the rise in consumption that we have seen. Leaving aside arguments over whether that is dipping down or staying the same, rising consumption has been driven largely by the cut prices we have seen in off-sales. We must consider what are the root causes of young people drinking and of crime and disorder in relation to off-premises. Those problems are largely due to the sale of alcohol in supermarkets and price promotions in the on-trade.
We must be able to tackle the issue of price, otherwise we will see continuing problems of crime and disorder. We know that having minimum prices in the on-trade and off-trade will cut down on crime. The consultation will look closely at the effect of the enabling power on that. According to university of Sheffield research, if there was a 30p minimum price in supermarkets alone crimes would be reduced by about 3,800. There is good evidence to show what happens when minimum prices are introduced for alcohol. That would not necessarily impact on revenues for the drinks industry. Although the volume of sales might go down, the price increase would mean that the profits go up or stay the same.