8. Debate: Stage 4 of the Public Health (Minimum Price for Alcohol) (Wales) Bill

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:23 pm on 19 June 2018.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 5:23, 19 June 2018

Thank you, Llywydd. I'm very pleased to move the motion and open the Stage 4 debate for the Public Health (Minimum Price for Alcohol) (Wales) Bill.

We have of course been working on this Bill for a number of years. We first consulted on minimum pricing for alcohol in 2014, as part of the public health White Paper, and I would like to start by thanking my ministerial colleagues Mark Drakeford and Rebecca Evans for their work to shape and develop this landmark legislation. I'd like to thank Assembly Members for their support and for the scrutiny that has taken place during the passage of the Bill. In particular, I'd like to thank the three committees—the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, the Finance Committee and the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee—for their scrutiny. I'd also like to thank external stakeholders for their continued engagement since the introduction of the Bill last October, but also in terms of their previous contributions, including their responses to the consultation on a draft Bill in 2015 that I led as the then Deputy Minister.

This Bill is specifically concerned with the protection of life and health. It provides for a minimum price for the sale and supply of alcohol in Wales and will make it an offence for alcohol to be sold or supplied by retailers from qualifying premises below that price. The minimum price for the supply of alcohol in Wales will be calculated by a multiplier of the minimum unit price that will be specified in regulations, the percentage strength of the alcohol and its volume. It will not increase the price of every alcoholic drink, only those currently sold below the applicable minimum price. 

The legislation will also put in place a series of offences and penalties relating to the new system. It provides additional powers and duties for local authorities to enable them to enforce the minimum pricing system.

There have long been calls for the Welsh Government to do more to address the damage and health harms caused by the excessive consumption of alcohol, and this legislation does exactly that. Because when it comes to consumption, we know that the price of alcohol matters. By using price as a lever in this way, we can target and reduce the amount of alcohol being consumed by hazardous and harmful drinkers, whilst minimising the impacts on more moderate drinkers. This will help to improve a number of key health outcomes, including reducing the number of alcohol-related deaths and alcohol-related hospital admissions. And it's the formula on the face of the Bill that enables us to target cheap alcohol that is high in strength and high in volume—the type of alcohol that is disproportionately consumed by hazardous and harmful drinkers. It's worth noting that hazardous and harmful drinkers make up 28 per cent of the drinker population, according to research undertaken this year by the University of Sheffield, but they consume 75 per cent of all alcohol sold. 

During the passage of this Bill, many have cited the data on alcohol-related harms in Wales, and it always makes for difficult reading, and so it should. I want to repeat some of it here today. There were over 500 alcohol-related deaths in Wales last year alone and over 54,000 alcohol-related hospital admissions last year alone. Direct healthcare costs attributable to alcohol amount to an estimated £159 million in the last year alone. But even more of an issue is the devastation that lies behind those figures—the families, the communities and consequences for NHS staff and support services, as they all cope with the aftermath of alcohol-related death, disease and harm every day. 

This legislation provides us with an opportunity to make a significant difference. It gives us a chance to do more to address alcohol-related harm and, ultimately, gives us a chance to do more to try and save lives. Since we introduced the Bill to the Assembly last October, we've heard from a range of different public health experts and service providers. Many have recognised the difference that this legislation could make.

In written evidence to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, the Welsh NHS Confederation stated that 

'There is compelling evidence, both from across the UK and internationally, that introducing a MUP in Wales would lead to significant improvements in health and well-being of the population.'

And in oral evidence to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, the Cardiff and Vale University Local Health Board representative argued that

'minimum unit pricing is an absolutely critical piece of a jigsaw, without which many of the other interventions we provide and the work that we do don't achieve their full benefit.' 

Alcohol Research UK have noted that the

'benefits will accrue more in poorer communities....Those communities are less resilient to alcohol problems.'

That said, there is no doubt that this Bill is novel and experimental. Only Scotland has introduced a minimum price for alcohol in this way, with their legislation for minimum pricing coming into force on 1 May this year. The experimental nature of this legislation is exactly why we have included a sunset clause and review provisions in the Bill, and those provisions have been widely endorsed. But I would like to use today's opportunity to reiterate that the review provisions in the legislation will be underpinned by a robust five-year evaluation, and I will continue to update Members as we take that work forward. 

I also intend to consult on the proposed level of the minimum unit price as soon as possible and, again, I will continue to update Assembly Members on our plans for this consultation and associated timings.