- Below-cost selling will have very little impact on alcohol consumption
- New policy will educe overall consumption by 0.04 per cent
- 1.3 per cent of all alcohol units sold will be affected by the ban
The Government will today (Wednesday 17 July 2013) announce plans to ban retailers from selling alcohol cheaper than the cost of the tax payable on the product. This ban on below-cost selling will have a very small impact on alcohol consumption and related harms according to the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group.
Experts, based at the University of Sheffield's School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR), whose research has been influential in providing evidence to inform policy decisions in the UK and beyond, analysed evidence on alcohol purchases in England under these new plans.
They estimated a small proportion (1.3 per cent) of all units of alcohol sold would fall below this proposed threshold. This varies by the type of drink, and in supermarkets and off-licenses it would affect 2.4 per cent of beer, just 0.1 per cent of cider, 0.4 per cent of wine and 1.2 per cent of spirits. > > > > Read More
