The UK supreme court has backed the Scottish government’s plans to introduce a minimum price for all alcoholic drinks, in a decisive victory for Nicola Sturgeon.

After a five-year legal battle against the plans led by the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), the court ruled on Wednesday that minimum pricing was legal on health grounds under EU law.

The seven judges unanimously agreed it was “a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim”.

The ruling clears the way for the Scottish and Welsh governments to introduce a minimum unit price for alcoholic drinks, likely to be set at 50p, and will increase pressure on UK ministers to follow suit in England.

Absolutely delighted that minimum pricing has been upheld by the Supreme Court. This has been a long road - and no doubt the policy will continue to have its critics - but it is a bold and necessary move to improve public health. — Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) November 15, 2017

Shona Robison, the Scottish health secretary, said the devolved government in Edinburgh would introduce minimum pricing as soon as possible and would set out a timetable to parliament within days. The pricing may come into force in spring 2018.

English health campaigners said the ruling meant the UK government had to revisit the issue, which was studied but shelved when David Cameron was prime minister.

Richard Piper, the chief executive of Alcohol Concern, said: “Now is the time for Westminster to step up and save lives. As alcohol has become more affordable, the rates of alcohol-related ill-health have risen. The fact is, something has to be done.”

The group, which recently merged with Alcohol Research UK, said strong cider was being sold at 18p per unit of alcohol, fortified wine at 27p per unit and the cheapest vodka and gin at 38p, increasing the risks for problem drinkers.

Alcohol Focus Scotland has calculated that adults buying one brand of strong cider can drink their maximum recommended weekly limit of alcohol – 14 units – for £2.52.

Robison said the ruling had “global significance. This is a historic and far-reaching judgment, and a landmark moment in our ambition to turn around Scotland’s troubled relationship with alcohol.”

Alcohol-related deaths in Scotland had increased in the five years since the legislation was passed, she said: “With alcohol available for sale at just 18p a unit, that death toll remains unacceptably high.

“Given the clear and proven link between consumption and harm, minimum pricing is the most effective and efficient way to tackle the cheap, high-strength alcohol that causes so much damage to so many families.”

Vaughan Gething, the Welsh health secretary, said there were 504 alcohol-related deaths in Wales last year, all of which were avoidable. He would look at whether the court ruling had implications for the Welsh minimum pricing bill introduced last month.

“We have long recognised that action to combat the availability of cheap and high-strength alcohol has been missing in our strategy,” Gething said. “We welcome this clear, unanimous judgment that minimum pricing is an appropriate and proportionate means of tackling hazardous and harmful drinking.”

The policy, championed by Sturgeon since she was Scotland’s health secretary, had been backed by Scottish judges in several hearings before it reached the supreme court.



Prof Petra Meier, director of the alcohol research group at the University of Sheffield, which published the data and evidence that Sturgeon’s proposals were based on, said a 50p minimum price would in time result in 120 fewer deaths and 2,000 fewer hospital admissions from alcohol abuse each year.

“Our research has consistently shown that minimum unit pricing would reduce alcohol-related health problems in Scotland by targeting the cheap, high-strength alcohol consumed by the heaviest and highest-risk drinkers,” Meier said. “Moderate drinkers would be affected to a much smaller degree.”

The SWA, with support from the European drinks industry, had argued that minimum pricing breached EU and global trade law as it interfered with free trade and open borders regulations. It lodged a series of appeals against the earlier rulings.

The industry’s case was supported by an interim opinion from the European court of justice in an appeal hearing at which European judges asked the Scottish and UK courts to re-examine the case.



Dr Eric Carlin, the director of Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems, a campaigning body backed by the medical profession, lambasted drinks companies for their “ferocious, cynical” opposition to the measure.

“The opponents to MUP [minimum unit pricing] have shamed the reputation of their industry by prioritising profits over people’s lives. As MUP has been delayed, we have seen the tragic, premature deaths of 24 people every week in Scotland as a result of alcohol misuse, many of them in our poorest communities, and affecting families across our nation,” he said.

Karen Betts, the SWA chief executive, said the industry would work with ministers on implementing the policy, as well as promoting responsible drinking and tackling alcohol-related harm.

“We will now look to the Scottish and UK governments to support the industry against the negative effects of trade barriers being raised in overseas markets that discriminate against Scotch whisky as a consequence of minimum pricing, and to argue for fair competition on our behalf,” she said.

“This is vital in order that the jobs and investment the industry provides in Scotland are not damaged.”

She said the association wanted to see an objective assessment of the impact of minimum pricing.

The Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Act, passed at Holyrood with all-party support in 2012, requires ministers to review its impact after five years. It includes a “sunset clause” under which minimum pricing is withdrawn unless Holyrood passes a renewal bill supporting it, six years after the act comes into force.

The court ruling was applauded by Scottish brewers and pub owners, who believe it will help protect the pub trade and undermine cut-price competitors.

Paul Bartlett, the group corporate relations director for C&C, which makes Tennent’s lager and Magners cider, said the company had always backed responsible drinking, and urged the Irish and Northern Irish governments to consider minimum pricing.

“Now that the supreme court have made their ruling, we urge the industry to get behind the decision,” he said. “We also hope similar legislation can be realised across other territories we operate in, including Ireland and Northern Ireland.”