Minimum pricing and underage drinkers

Download the article as a PDF Scotland’s unhealthy relationship with alcohol is well-documented. In 2010/11, there were 38,825 alcohol-related discharges from acute hospitals across the country (a rate of 695 per 100,000 population) and, in 2009, over three quarters of young offenders said that they were drunk at the time of their arrest. In response, the Scottish Government has introduced a range of measures to try and tackle the problem, the most publicised of which has been the recent passing of legislation to introduce a minimum price of 50p per unit of alcohol. The potential impacts of minimum pricing have been widely discussed in relation to adult drinking. However, it is not only adults of legal age that will feel the effects of the new law. What impact will this legislation have on underage drinkers? To explore the financial impacts of minimum pricing on teenagers, we used data from the 2010 Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS). This provides detailed estimates of the number of units of alcohol consumed by 13 year old and 15 year old teenagers in the previous week. Using this data we calculated the average weekly alcohol value both at current prices¹ and with the preferred minimum price of 50p per unit. Overall, 13 year olds drank an average of £6.70 worth of alcohol and 15 year olds drank an average of £8.45 at current prices. With minimum pricing the average 13 year old drinker would see the cost of their consumption increase by 23% to £8.25 and 15 year olds would see an increase of £2.01 or 24% more. The key issue is in estimating the effect of this rise which looks substantial in proportional terms but modest in monetary terms. Would an extra £2 a week act as a deterrent to underage drinking? There are two reasons why it is difficult to gauge the impact of minimum pricing without further research being conducted. Firstly, we know from SALSUS that a large proportion of alcohol consumption by teenagers is paid for by someone else. Indeed, the survey revealed that around two thirds of 13 year olds and around a third of 15 year olds said that they spent nothing on alcohol, even though they reported drinking it. For these young people, it seems minimum pricing would have no direct effect on alcohol consumption. Secondly, the impact of the wider debate on alcohol use and minimum pricing on consumption will not be measured purely in monetary terms. For instance, it may lead to a change in the wider drinking culture, making it less acceptable to drink to excess, or it may lead to their parents purchasing lower amounts of alcohol, and, consequently, less alcohol would be available to them. It is vital for government and public health bodies to be able to measure the impact of minimum pricing, to evaluate the extent to which it will contribute to improving long-term outcomes for today’s young people. Currently, the main problem in exploring underage drinking is the lack of information available. Underage drinkers cannot be isolated in sales figures and there is little empirical evidence about where underage drinkers source their alcohol. Without further data we cannot make the assumptions required to provide an answer on the impact of minimum pricing among this group. Until further research is conducted to establish where underage drinkers get their alcohol from and how they fund it, the impact of alcohol minimum pricing on underage drinkers cannot truly be assessed.

Part of this article has been featured in Holyrood magazine.

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Notes

1. Current alcohol unit prices were calculated by selecting a common alcoholic drink from each alcohol grouping and using the lowest priced type available. Prices were sourced from an online supermarket grocery website.