I'd like to speak in support of this Bill. It's an important Bill designed to tackle a social evil that has been with us for far too long. It's also a Bill to which a commitment was made in the 2016 Welsh Labour manifesto, a manifesto that I was proud to be elected on.

I want to thank the Members of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, the Finance Committee and the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee. I think they've done an important job in scrutinising the Welsh Government’s proposals and also suggesting areas where the Bill could be strengthened.

The principles underpinning the case for a minimum unit price are quite clear-cut, but it is a fact that excessive alcohol consumption causes harm. It's a fact that in 2015 there were 463 alcohol-related deaths in Wales. And it is also a fact that in 2015-16 there were over 50,000 hospital admissions attributed to alcohol misuse.

Alcohol abuse causes crime and anti-social behaviour. It damages our economy and moreover it is corrosive to family life. The Westminster all-party group on children of alcoholics have done some work on this that has been really crucial in showing its impact. They suggest that, around the UK, one in five children lives with a parent who drinks too much. That’s over 2.5 million children. The all-party group notes that these children are twice as likely to experience difficulties at school as their peers, three times more likely to consider suicide, five times more likely to develop eating disorders, and four times more likely to become alcoholics themselves.

We must take action to deal with this problem, and the Welsh Government has clearly set out why a minimum unit price is the way forward. It has also set out a few of the beneficial impacts of a 50p minimum price. Annually, this could lead to 53 fewer deaths, 1,400 fewer hospital admissions, and be worth, in effect, £882 million-worth of savings to the Welsh economy.

However, there are a couple of issues I want to flag up today. Firstly, while I was conducting my research for today, I came across another interesting statistic. Last year, 51 million bottles of gin were sold in the UK. That’s nearly 10 million up on the previous year. Now, I don’t want to get drawn into a discussion around craft gins, but by presuming that this is linked to more middle-class patterns of consumption, this helps me illustrate my first point. The Bill’s measures seem focused on the cheapest, strongest forms of alcohol. If people can afford to pay more, won’t they just spend more money on alcohol? Will minimum unit pricing help us to tackle more affluent problem drinkers? Or will it just hit those who can least afford to pay the price hike?

Secondly, I want to mention an issue that was raised during the Supporting People workshop held by the Public Accounts Committee. Concerns were raised there that minimum pricing could, as an unintended consequence, fuel anti-social behaviour, as desperate people—addicts—resort to desperate measures to fuel their addiction. I would be keen for the thoughts of the Cabinet Secretary on how we could make sure that this is not the case.

Going forward, I would hope any minimum pricing is kept under annual review. I know this is something that committee scrutiny of the general principles has suggested. [Interruption.]