A Government minister has indicated that the Coalition could go further than its planned ban on “below-cost” alcohol sales depending on industry actions to reduce alcohol-related harms.
Last year the Government shelved plans to introduce a minimum price for alcohol in favour of a ban on sales below the combined total of VAT plus duty.
Home Office minister Norman Baker was asked in Parliament this week about how many meetings his department has said with the industry about alcohol pricing policy. He said: “Home Office Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of international partners, as well as organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors, as part of the process of policy development and delivery.
“We are shortly introducing a ban on below-cost sales and reserve the right to go further depending on the actions of the industry to take action to reduce alcohol related harms.”
Speaking last summer, David Cameron said there were arguments with “a lot of merit” in favour of a minimum price but there were also problems.
“There’s a degree of legal uncertainty - it’s been introduced in Scotland but it’s still under legal challenge - and there’s also question marks about the evidence behind it and how well it can work.
“So, when we have more evidence about how it can work and when we’ve got more certainty about the legal issues I think it’s an idea that has merit, that I’ll be happy to consider again.”
