Minimum alcohol pricing in Scotland to start in May
Whisky (70cl bottle at 40% ABV)
£13.13 Vodka (70cl bottle at 37.5% ABV)
£1 Lager (500ml can at 4% ABV)
£2.50 Cider (1 litre bottle at 5% – normal strength)
£4.69 Red wine (75cl bottle at 12.5% ABV)
The Scottish Parliament passed the minimum pricing legislation five years ago
but it was tied up in a legal challenge by the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) until last week, when the Supreme Court ruled that it did not breach EU law.
The 50p-per-unit minimum would raise the price of the cheapest bottle of red wine (9.4 units of alcohol) to £4.69, while a four-pack of 500ml cans of 4% lager (8 units) would cost at least £4
and a 70cl bottle of whisky (28 units of alcohol) could not be sold for less than £14.
Ms Robison said research had shown that a minimum unit price of 50p would cut alcohol-related deaths by 392
and hospital admissions by 8,254 over the first five years of the policy.
Normal strength cider (5% ABV) would cost at least £2.50 a litre
but a super-strength version (7.5% ABV) would have to cost a minimum of £3.75 for a litre.
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