A coalition of MPs, medical bodies, charities and public health organisations has written to the health secretary calling for the introduction of minimum unit pricing in England.
The widespread availability of ‘dangerously cheap, high strength’ alcohol is fuelling preventable illness and death and worsening health inequalities, says the letter, which is signed by the Royal College of Physicians, Cancer Research UK, Alcohol Change UK, Alcohol Focus Scotland and others. Without targeted action, alcohol health harms will continue to place an ‘unsustainable burden’ on communities, public services, and the economy, it says.
‘Very strong, very cheap alcohol is available everywhere in this country, from our supermarkets to our corner shops and increasingly via online rapid delivery services,’ the letter states. ‘This creates the ideal conditions for escalating alcohol harm, harm which can be reduced through minimum unit pricing,’ – adding that MUP would not damage the hospitality sector as it is specifically designed to target off-sales products ‘most closely associated with serious harm’.
There were almost 10,000 deaths from alcohol-specific causes registered in the UK in 2024, 6 per cent down on the previous year’s record high of close to 10,500. Scotland, which saw MUP implemented almost a decade ago, recorded a 3 per cent fall in alcohol-specific deaths last year, although Scotland and Northern Ireland continue to have higher rates than the rest of the UK.
With MUP already introduced in other UK nations, England was in danger of becoming an ‘alcohol harm outlier’, said Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance, which is leading the coalition alongside Cat Smith MP. ‘Cheap, high-strength alcohol is not a bargain when the cost is paid in lives lost, families torn apart and growing pressure on our NHS,’ added Smith. ‘The human and economic costs are now far too high to ignore. The question for this government is no longer whether we should act, but why we are still waiting.’