BBC Scotland broke its own rules by allowing a dark money front group for the drink industry a slot on its flagship radio news programme without asking who funded it, an MSP has claimed.

Greens media spokesperson Ross Greer has now written to the corporation’s director-general about the appearance, on yesterday’s Good Morning Scotland, of think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) during a discussion about the minimum unit pricing (MUP) of alcohol in Scotland, a policy the IEA claims is ineffective.

In his letter to Tony Hall, Greer said that at no point during the package did the BBC reveal that the IEA has been funded by the alcohol industry, despite a change in editorial guidelines making clear that they should do so.

“The director-general has previously confirmed to me that BBC editorial guidelines had changed to ensure that key information such as this is given to the audience,” said Greer.

“This is specifically on the grounds that contributors such as these shady ‘think tanks’ cannot be assumed to be unbiased.

“So I’m deeply concerned that once again the BBC appears to have acted outwith its own guidelines and platformed the IEA, a front group for corporations, without even asking them to confirm where their money comes from.

“That’s why I’ve written to the director-general asking that the BBC explain why it ignored its own guidelines and allowed this shady front group to criticise a public health policy which just so happens to impact the profits of its likely funders.”

The discussion centred on an IEA report written by Christopher Snowdon, its head of lifestyle economics, which claimed that despite advocates predicting MUP would have an almost immediate impact in Scotland, drink-related mortality had fallen at the same rate as England and Wales in its first eight months.

Alison Douglas, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said the policy, introduced in May 2018, was beginning to have an impact, despite there being no change in the death rate from drink.

“Figures from the first year of MUP show that Scotland bought 3.6% less alcohol from off-sales than in the previous year – this is in contrast to England and Wales, who don’t have MUP, where off-sales purchases went up by 3.2%,” she said.

“Although overall hospital admissions have not gone down, there are some positive signs that the number of people admitted due to alcoholic liver disease decreased since MUP – particularly in our poorer communities.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said the amount of pure alcohol sold per adult in Scotland in 2018 was the lowest since 1994.

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

The spokesperson added: “While a fall in sales is encouraging, it will take longer for the impact of reduced consumption to feed through to alcohol health harms like hospital admissions.”

A BBC spokesperson said: “We note that Ross Greer MSP has written to the BBC’s director-general, who will reply to Mr Greer in due course.”

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