Below-cost ban would stop fewer than 1 in 50 alcohol discount offers

A recent  bulletin suggests the forthcoming below-cost ban would stop fewer than 1 in 50 alcohol discount offers:

As the British government reportedly tussles over whether to set a minimum per unit price for alcohol, evidence from Newcastle that the alternative below-cost ban would have prevented less than 1 in 50 discount offers.

Policy debates on pricing alcohol in Britain in order to reduce alcohol-related harm have focused on two options: setting a minimum price per unit of alcohol; or banning below-cost sales. Unit prices which have been considered include the £0.50 recommendation from the UK government's former chief medical adviser. Instead of this, for England the government has proposed a below-cost ban based on on the rate of duty plus value added tax (VAT – the tax levied on sales to consumers in the UK). At the time of the featured study, this would have resulted in a minimum unit price of around £0.21–£0.28 depending on the type of drink.

Read the full bulletin here and see our previous review of why a below-cost ban is not minimum pricing, as is often confused in media reports.

A Guardian report had previously suggested the below cost ban would only affect one in nearly 4,000 drinks. The ban is due to come in under forthcoming Licensing changes this year and the Home Secretary has stated it was expected to result in 7,000 fewer alcohol-related incidents and 1,000 fewer hospital admissions. Nonetheless, a commitment to minimum pricing by 2015 may be outlined in the new national alcohol strategy, expected by late March 2012.