Wales re-states call for tougher pricing powers

A Welsh Assembly minister has once again urged the UK Government to grant Wales greater powers to tackle cheap drink in supermarkets and pubs.

Minimum pricing, stricter rules on promoting alcohol and higher alcohol taxes are the key ideas flagged up by Edwina Hart, minister for health and social services and Welsh Labour Party member.

She told the Assembly: "We do not currently have the powers to implement these changes ourselves.

"Our focus has been on making the case to the UK Government, and I and my ministerial colleagues have written on a number of occasions to highlight these issues.

"And I believe that opinion is swinging our way. In recent months we have seen calls for minimum pricing from the BMA, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, and the Parliamentary Health Select Committee."

Hart highlighted studies that have found alcohol on sale for a little as 11p per unit.

"At that price, a woman can drink three times the recommended limit for under £1 a day," she said.

She estimated that a minimum price of 40p and 50p per unit would reduce alcohol-related deaths in Wales by 20-25%.

Hart added: "The Welsh Assembly Government has worked very hard to tackle alcohol misuse using all the means at its disposal and will continue to do so.

"But it is important that we do not ignore the evidence that making alcohol a little less affordable has the potential to significantly reduce the blight of alcohol misuse on our society.

"And I am very clear that if we do not see the action we want at UK level very soon, then the time will come when we seek more powers to act ourselves."

Last July, social justice minister Dr Brian Gibbons told the Morning Advertiser​ that the Assembly would lobby to gain control over licensing and alcohol policy if the UK Government doesn't let it take a harder line.