Price

• The average 4% ABV pint of beer costs: £3.64 in the on-trade and £1.24 in the off-trade.
• 43p of the beer price is duty, which represents: 12% of the on-trade retail price; 35% of the off-trade retail price
• VAT is 20% of pre-tax price /17% of post-tax price. Excise duty varies between products, but on average accounts for around 25% of the final price. (Bhattacharya, 2017)

Average paid per unit by The Institute of Alcohol Studies

How affordable is alcohol? by The Institute of Alcohol Studies

Affordability of beer and wine/spirits by The Institute of Alcohol Studies

• As a rule of thumb, for every 1% increase in the price of alcohol, consumption falls by 0.5%
• Two major meta analyses each combining estimates from over 100 studies found:

How does alcohol’s affordability affect consumption? by The Institute of Alcohol Studies

• If a duty escalator were introduced in 2020, an estimated 4,710 alcohol-attributable deaths would be averted by 2032, compared with a policy of increasing duties in line with inflation.

How many deaths would be avoided if alcohol duty was increased? by The Institute of Alcohol Studies

• If a duty escalator were introduced in 2020, an estimated 160,761 hospital admissions would be averted by 2032, compared with a policy of increasing duties in line with inflation

How many hospital admissions would be avoided if alcohol duty was increased? by The Institute of Alcohol Studies

What are the current duty rates for alcohol? by The Institute of Alcohol Studies

• Nominal alcohol duty – so duty in cash-terms – has steadily increased over time. However, real-terms duty – so duty compared to inflationary increases of other products – is much lower now than in the past

How have alcohol duties changed over time? by The Institute of Alcohol Studies

How have real terms alcohol duties changed over time? by The Institute of Alcohol Studies

• Minimum alcohol pricing sets a ‘floor price’ below which alcohol cannot be sold. Under minimum unit pricing (MUP) the floor price is set according to the alcohol content of the drink, per unit.
• Minimum pricing is not a tax, and any additional revenue from raising prices goes to retailers rather than the government.

Which countries have adopted minimum alcohol pricing? by The Institute of Alcohol Studies

How does minimum unit pricing affect the price of alcohol? by The Institute of Alcohol Studies

• In Scotland, MUP has reduced deaths wholly attributable to alcohol consumption by 13.4% – equating to 156 deaths every year. The greatest effects were seen amongst the four most socio-economically deprived areas. (PHS, 2023)
• Public Health Scotland found MUP to be associated with a net reduction of 3% in total per-adult sales of pure alcohol in the three years following implementation. (PHS, 2022)
• The reductions in alcohol purchases were greatest among households that were buying the most alcohol pre-MUP. (Wyper, Grant MA, et al. 2023)

How effective is minimum unit pricing? by The Institute of Alcohol Studies

• Change in consumption at full effect by policy and socioeconomic status (units per year)

How effective are alcohol duties and minimum unit pricing combined? by The Institute of Alcohol Studies