3 September 2015: Commenting on today’s opinion on minimum unit pricing from the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice, Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, Chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance, said:
“Today’s opinion from the Advocate General is encouraging since evidence shows that minimum unit pricing is an evidence-based, targeted measure that produces public health benefits where other policies fail. Taxation alone cannot achieve the same impact as minimum unit pricing which targets the high-strength, low-cost products which cause the most harm.
We welcome the good news that the Scottish Government is one step closer to implementing minimum unit pricing. The Scottish Government led the way on this policy and it is disappointing that it has been deliberately derailed by the alcohol industry which brought this legal challenge, undermining the will of a democratically elected government and costing more lives in the process. It is a terrible shame that so much time and money has been spent fighting a battle with big business determined to protect their profits at the expense of people’s health and wellbeing.
The time has come for governments across the UK listen to the evidence and not be swayed by multinational companies with vested interests.
We await the final verdict in due course.”