LICENSED TRADE ASSOCIATION BACKS MINIMIM PRICING

LICENSED TRADE ASSOCIATION BACKS MINIMIM PRICING

Calls by Scotland's largest licensees' group, the Scottish Licensed Trade Association (SLTA), for distillers to get behind the Scottish Government's minimum pricing policy, have been welcomed by the SNP.

The SLTA argue that introduction of the policy would bridge the pricing gulf between on and off-trades. STLA also insist that producers of premium products, such as Scotch whisky, have nothing to fear from minimum pricing, with the association's chief executive, Paul Waterson, dismissing such claims as "nonsense".

Welcoming the SLTA's intervention, SNP MSP and member of the Scottish Parliament's Health Committee, Michael Matheson, said:

"The medical and academic evidence has stacked up in support of minimum pricing, and now the trade itself has seen the sense of the Scottish Government's proposals.

"For the biggest licensees' group in the country throw its weight behind minimum pricing is a major endorsement and step forward towards tackling the scourge of alcohol misuse. Minimum pricing was never about penalising premium products like Scotch whisky.

"As evidence stacks up week after week those who oppose minimum pricing look increasingly irresponsible and isolated.

"The scale of Scotland's alcohol misuse problem is shocking: 42,500 alcohol-related hospital discharges; 1,500 deaths per year; soaring rates of liver cirrhosis; the eighth highest consumption in the world, and a 2.25 billion annual cost in public services and lost productivity.

"The endorsement from the SLTA underlines why the Scottish Government is right to tackle the scourge of alcohol misuse."