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SCOTTISH COURTS UPHOLD MINIMUM PRICING PLANS
A LEGAL CHALLENGE FROM THE SCOTCH WHISKY ASSOCIATION ( SWA ) and others against the Scottish Government ’ s plans to introduce minimum unit pricing for alcohol has been rejected by Scotland ’ s Court of Session .
Although the government has said the drinks industry ‘ must now respect the democratic will of the Scottish Parliament ’ and the ruling of the court , the association has not ruled out an appeal against the decision . ‘ We will study the details of the judgement and consult our members before deciding on next steps , including any possible appeal to the UK Supreme Court ,’ said SWA chief executive David Frost .
‘ The democratic will of our national parliament has been thwarted by this ongoing legal challenge .’
AIlEEn CAmPBEll
The ruling is the latest development in the longrunning saga of the Scottish Government ’ s attempts to introduce the legislation . The Alcohol Minimum Pricing Bill – which set a 50p minimum price per unit as a condition of licence – was finally passed by the Scottish Parliament a year and a half after the previous Alcohol etc ( Scotland ) Bill had its provisions for minimum pricing removed ( DDN , June 2012 , page 12 ).
The subsequent four years , however , have seen the proposals referred to the European Court of Justice following the SWA ’ s legal challenge ( DDN , June 2014 , page 4 ). While the European court ’ s initial ruling was that minimum pricing could potentially breach EU free trade laws ( DDN , October 2015 , page 4 ), the case was then referred back to the Scottish courts for a final decision .
The Scottish government has called the court ’ s latest ruling ‘ a landmark ’ moment . ‘ I am delighted that the highest court in Scotland has reinforced the initial judgment in our favour from 2013 ,’ said public health minister Aileen Campbell . ‘ This follows the opinion of the European Court of Justice , which ruled that it was for our domestic courts to make a final judgment on the scheme . This policy was passed by the Scottish Parliament unopposed more than four years ago . In that time , the democratic will of our national parliament has been thwarted by this ongoing legal challenge , while many people in Scotland have continued to die from the effects of alcohol misuse .’
NHS Health Scotland said the decision was ‘ an important day for public health in Scotland ’, while Balance North East called it ‘ a victory for democracy and for some of the most vulnerable people in society ’. While SWA states that it continues to believe that MUP is a restriction on trade and that ‘ there are more effective ways of tackling alcohol misuse ’, a recent report from the Alcohol Health Alliance found that products like highstrength white ciders – typically drunk by dependent and underage drinkers – were now on sale for as little as 16p per unit . Cuts in alcohol taxes had allowed shops to sell alcohol at ‘ rock bottom prices ’, it warned .
Scotch Whisky Association and others v Lord Advocate and Advocate General for Scotland at www . scotlandjudiciary . org . uk
Cheap alcohol : the price we pay at ahauk . org
CBD CONFUSION
Products containing the active cannabinoid cannabidiol ( CBD ) for medical purposes ‘ meet the definition of a medicinal product ’, according to a review by the government ’ s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency ( MHRA ), but anyone selling CBD products will now need to apply for a licence . Co-author of the recent All-Party Parliamentary report on medical cannabis , Professor Mike Barnes , called the decision ‘ confused ’. ‘ If the MHRA and the UK government now consider that cannabisderived CBD is a medicine , this is incompatible with the continuing schedule 1 status of cannabis under the Misuse of Drugs Act that clearly states that cannabis has no medicinal value ,’ he said . MHRA statement on products containing cannabidiol at www . gov . uk
LOWER THE LIMIT
A COALITION OF EMERGENCY SERVICES organisations , road safety charities and health bodies is calling for the drink driving limit in England and Wales to be reduced in order to save lives . Around 240 people die each year as a result drink driving , a figure that has remained unchanged since the start of the decade , while the 80mg alcohol per 100ml blood limit has been in place since 1965 and is higher than almost anywhere else in Europe . ‘ With hundreds of lives lost each year , we can ’ t afford to let England and Wales fall behind our neighbours in road safety standards ,’ said director of the Institute of Alcohol Studies ( IAS ), Katherine Brown . ‘ It ’ s time the government looked at the evidence and what other countries are doing to save lives and make roads safer .’ IAS drink drive video at www . ias . org . uk
The impact of the government ’ s flagship ‘ troubled families ’ programme has been negligible .
TROUBLING TIMES
THE IMPACT of the government ’ s flagship ‘ troubled families ’ programme has been negligible , according to an evaluation report from the Department for Communities and Local Government . Although the programme ‘ clearly raised the profile of family intervention country-wide ’ and transformed service development in some areas , these achievements did not ‘ translate into the range and size of impacts ’ that might have been anticipated based on the programme ’ s original aspirations , it says . In terms of outcome measures like use of drugs and alcohol in the previous three months , there was ‘ no statistically significant evidence of any impacts of the programme ’. National evaluation of the troubled families programme : final synthesis report at www . gov . uk
‘ Almost a quarter of the homeless people staying in hostels in the central london borough of Westminster are using synthetic cannabinoids like “ spice ”.’
WESTMINSTER WORRIES
ALMOST A QUARTER of the homeless people staying in hostels in the central London borough of Westminster are using synthetic cannabinoids like ‘ spice ’, the local authority has said – a figure that would ‘ have been closer to zero just two years ago ’. The drugs pose a risk to both rough sleepers and frontline staff , said cabinet member for public protection , Nickie Aiken , and the council is calling for the police to be given increased powers to confiscate them .
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