A BAN on cheap drink promotions in supermarkets and off-licences in Scotland has failed to cut the amount of alcohol that people are drinking, scientists have said.

Researchers have called for stronger measures to cut alcohol consumption after a study into Scots' buying habits showed there was no evidence that removing promotional discounts from the shelves on had led to a drop in sales of beers, ciders wines and spirits.

The ban was introduced in October 2011 as part of the Alcohol Act 2010, and led to the end of buy-one-get-one-free deals or offers such as two bottles for £8 in supermarkets and off licences.

Excessive alcohol consumption is a major cause of ill-health and mortality and also associated with economic and social harm and the Scottish Government was among the first in the world to attempt to tackle the problem by targeting cheap promotions.

However, a report by the Behaviour And Health Research Unit, a collaboration between East Anglia University and Cambridge University, says alcohol sales by volume stayed the same in the year after the ban, while there was also no reduction in the total amount of units of alcohol being bought.

Researchers used detailed household purchasing data to evaluate the impact of the policy on the amount of alcohol being bought, as well as on consumers' alcohol shopping patterns.

They found that by June 2012 there was no evidence the ban of multi-buy promotions reduced the amount of beer, cider, wine, spirits, and flavoured alcohol drinks being bought.

People did change the way they bought beer and ciders, drinks that were the most common to be featured in cut-price offers, with fewer being bought per shopping trip than would have been the case without the ban.

However, Scots went out to buy beer and cider more frequently instead, leaving the overall amount purchased unchanged.

The report's lead author, Dr Ryota Nakamura, said super­markets and other retailers got around the ban by lowering their prices to encourage people to continue buying alcohol in the same volume and that this tactic had worked.

The researcher said: "The industry appears to have responded to the ban by replacing multi-buy with simple price reduction, which made it possible for Scottish consumers to buy alcohol at a discounted price but with a smaller financial outlay. This might have mitigated the intended effects of the policy."

Professor Theresa Marteau said: "This study provides timely evidence on the seeming ineffectiveness of an intervention designed to reduce alcohol consumption."

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said the report was at odds with research by NHS Scotland, which showed alcohol sales in Scotland had been reduced by about 2.6% following the introduction of the multi-buy ban.

He added: "The intention was always to introduce a multi-buy ban alongside minimum unit pricing to create a floor-price below which alcohol cannot be sold.

"What is clear, through this research and our own, is that a multi-buy ban on its own is not enough and minimum unit pricing is required."