24 May 2012

The Scottish Greens have welcomed the passing of the Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) Bill but have repeated their call for bolder reform of the drinks industry to tip the balance away from big brands that rely on volume sales.

In the last session of Parliament, the Greens were the only opposition party to support the Government’s minimum pricing proposals.

Green MSP Alison Johnstone said:

“Minimum pricing won’t be a game-changer like the smoking ban, but it is an important tool. I’m glad to see that some of the parties that previously formed an unholy alliance to defeat these plans have seen sense and now recognise the need to crack down on excessively cheap alcohol. The public will not want to see supermarkets raking in extra profits from minimum pricing and we continue back Labour’s call for action to address this.

“Now we must capitalise on the high profile of this issue among parties and beef up the rest of our approach to Scotland’s drink industry, with bold action on advertising and on support for the growing number of small, independent brewers. If we did more to back those whose focus is quality over quantity then we will see benefits for both our health and local economies.”