Home Office to publish impact of below-cost ban

Published: 29 November, 2011

The Home Office is to publish its assessment of how the below-cost selling ban will impact on problem and underage drinking in the new year.

The Home Office is to publish its assessment of how the below-cost selling ban will impact on problem and underage drinking in the new year.

James Brokenshire, Home Office minister, provided a written answer to Sarah Wollaston, the Conservative MP for Totnes, saying: "The impact assessment for banning the sale of alcohol below the cost of duty plus VAT will be published by the Home Office in the new year. This will assess the impact of excessive alcohol consumption on harmful and hazardous drinking groups who are most likely to be affected by the ban. The Home Office carefully considered the potential impact on underage and excessive alcohol consumption when considering options for the ban."

However, the Home Office denied a request from Diana Johnson, the Labour MP for Kingston upon Hull North, to publish the legal advice it received on the introduction of minimum pricing. Brokenshire wrote: "The legal advice which the government have received on this issue is subject to legal privilege. We do not, therefore, believe it appropriate to disclose this advice (or any summary of it)."

There has been some debate over whether the introduction of a minimum price per unit of alcohol would withstand a legal challenge. Recently public health minister Anne Milton described the measure, proposed in Scotland, as "probably illegal". But the Scottish government's head of public health told a conference in Westminster last month that, "The UK government has taken the Carlsberg defence - they say it is 'probably illegal'. We think it is probably not illegal."

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