Alcohol etc (Scotland) Bill

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 5:53 pm on 10 November 2010.

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Photo of Murdo Fraser Murdo Fraser Conservative 5:53, 10 November 2010

I join others in thanking all those involved in the legislation, the bill team and members of the Health and Sport Committee, who spent many hours looking at the evidence, preparing the committee report and considering the bill at stage 2.

For my own part, although I have been my party's health spokesman for only a few months, I feel that the Alcohol etc (Scotland) Bill has taken up a huge amount of my time. I am sure that other members, not least the cabinet secretary, will feel the same. On a personal level, I think that it is only fair to pay tribute to the cabinet secretary for her personal commitment to the issue. We may have disagreed on minimum pricing, but nobody could doubt her personal conviction and the interest that she has taken in pursuing the issue.

The discussion on the bill has allowed us to have a national debate about Scotland's problem with excess alcohol consumption. The reasons for that are complex, and there is no point in trying to pretend otherwise. I believe that the consumption rate of alcohol per head in Scotland is equivalent to that in France, but in France the health outcomes are much superior because the French consume alcohol differently, which suggests that there is a strong cultural issue. In that respect, Scotland is akin to other small northern European countries with dark, cold winters and long winter nights, as a result of which we seem to consume a lot of alcohol. There are more issues at play than simply the question of price. It is a real pity that minimum unit pricing dominated the debate and prevented a broader discussion about the causes of excess alcohol consumption.

I am also concerned about the somewhat sanctimonious tone of some members, not so much in the debate today but in the wider debate. We must remember that, consumed in moderation, alcohol is not just harmless but beneficial. It is also a vital part of Scottish industry and Scottish exports. We must therefore be wary of introducing unproven measures that might well jeopardise the future of vital industries that employ many thousands of people throughout Scotland.

I was pleased to hear the cabinet secretary say that she does not regard minimum unit pricing as a magic bullet. To his credit, Michael Matheson took up that point. Unfortunately, the point seems to have been lost on Anne McLaughlin, who seemed to suggest that that is exactly what it would have been. There is a relationship between price and consumption but, as Ross Finnie fairly said, it is not a simple one. As Mary Scanlon said, the prices in England and Scotland are the same but consumption per head of alcohol is 25 per cent higher in Scotland than in England. It is a complex issue. Moreover, in recent years, consumption per head in Scotland has fallen. If price were the major driver, that would not have been the case.

We have said all along that we would prefer a UK-wide approach and that we want to see increases in tax and duty on a targeted basis. That would have an important impact in that it would apply across the UK and would get around the problem of cross-border trade—an issue that has been dismissed too easily by the Government in the debate. We buy our wine over the internet, and I am sure that many thousands of other Scottish households do the same. It would be far too easy to avoid minimum unit pricing if it were introduced only in Scotland.

Even without minimum unit pricing, this is still a worthwhile bill. It will clamp down on irresponsible promotions and the challenge 25 measures will be extremely valuable. However, we continue to have concerns about the social responsibility levy. We do not believe—and never did—that blanket measures should be applied to everybody; we always believed that the measures should apply only to irresponsible traders, in whatever way that could be formulated. We await the regulations coming to the Parliament under super-affirmative procedure so that we can consider them.

Although we have reservations about that aspect of the bill, it is, on balance, a good bill and one that we will support today. It is an important step but not the end of the story.