Minimum alcohol pricing a potential ‘life-saver’, say experts
17 Dec 2020
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Introducing a minimum price per unit of alcohol in England could save thousands of lives in the next decade, experts have said.
In a letter to The Times, four experts in the field of alcohol addiction welcomed the findings of an Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) report which proposed tax reforms to ‘tackle heavy drinking’.
The IFS based its recommendations on new evidence from alcohol purchases in Scotland. Scotland became the first country in the world to introduce minimum unit pricing for alcohol in 2018.
Life-saving measures
Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, Sir Jeremy Elwes, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath and Professor John Iredale said in their letter that the relatively low price of alcohol per unit in England cost “thousands of lives a year”.