Asda's Concerns over Minimum Alcohol Pricing in Wales: Unintended Consequences, Lecture notes of Business

Download Asda's Concerns over Minimum Alcohol Pricing in Wales: Unintended Consequences and more Lecture notes Business in PDF only on Docsity! 1 Health, Social Care and Sport Committee National Assembly for Wales Pierhead Street Cardiff CF99 1NA December 2017 Asda Consultation Response: Health, Social Care and Sport Committee Inquiry into the General Principles of the Public Health (Minimum Price for Alcohol) (Wales) Bill About Asda Founded in the 1960s in Yorkshire, Asda is one of Britain’s leading retailers and helps customers save money and live better through shopping in our stores, online and through their mobile devices. Asda has 646 stores across the UK employing more than 150,000 people, including 43 sites in Wales employing more than 10,000 colleagues. Our main office is in Leeds, Yorkshire and our George clothing division is in Lutterworth, Leicestershire. Asda and alcohol Alcohol consumption in the UK has been on a sustained downward trajectory for more than a decade, with the most recent ONS data showing that the proportion of adults drinking alcohol at the lowest level on record: only 56% had had a drink in the week before being interviewed - a fall from 64% in 2005. Binge drinking and harmful drinking have also declined by 17% and 23% respectively since 2005, and the proportion of young people who are teetotal has risen over the same period. There is, however, still a long way to go, and at Asda we accept that more can be done to tackle alcohol misuse. As a responsible retailer, we continue to demonstrate our willingness to act by implementing an extensive package of retail measures and advocacy work to ensure we sell alcohol responsibly and help our customers to make informed choices. In 2010 we made a voluntary commitment not to sell alcohol at a price below the cost of excise duty plus VAT – the only retailer to commit to doing so – and we offer a wide range of low or alcohol-free products to help customers moderate their alcohol consumption. We were the first retailer to introduce Challenge 25 in every store and we use an independent verification system (Serve Legal) to ensure that all of our colleagues are applying the policy consistently and appropriately. We have voluntarily delisted certain high alcohol products from our shelves and reduced the alcohol content of others. The products we have removed from sale include all strong white cider, including Frosty Jacks (7.5% ABV) and Diamond White (7.5% ABV) and all non-premium, high-strength beers and lagers including Tennent’s Super (9% ABV) and Carlsberg Special Brew (8% ABV). We do not sell any carbonated product with more than four units of alcohol in a single-serve can or 15 units in a PET plastic bottle. We support Community Alcohol Partnerships (CAP) that aim to tackle public underage drinking and alcohol related anti-social behaviour through co-operation between alcohol retailers and local stakeholders. We currently participate in 18 local partnerships across the UK and continue to work MPA 48 Bil Iechyd y Cyhoedd (Isafbris am Alcohol) (Cymru) Public Health (Minimum Price for Alcohol) (Wales) Bill Ymateb gan Asda Response from Asda 2 closely with new CAPs as they develop. We would encourage communities in Wales to get in touch with the CAP team if they would like to set one up in their area. We are a leading funder of alcohol education charity Drinkaware, and this year extended our partnership to deliver alcohol awareness information events to Asda shoppers in 100 of our top alcohol selling stores, including four in Wales. Due to the success of these events, which actively engaged over two thousand customers, we will be repeating the activity in January 2018. General principles of the Bill While we welcome the intention of the Welsh Government to tackle alcohol misuse, we believe that the introduction of minimum pricing will penalise responsible drinkers on low incomes and could result in significant and undesirable unintended consequences. Evidence shows that a relatively small number of drinkers in the UK consume a disproportionately large amount of alcohol, with close to 70% of alcohol consumed by one fifth of the population. Heavy drinking amongst a minority drastically pushes up the average. Policies which aim to reduce per capita alcohol consumption through price controls not only fail to help problem drinkers, but punish the majority of responsible consumers. Independent research by the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) shows that minimum pricing is a regressive measure that will have the biggest impact on those on the lowest incomes. This is despite the evidence showing that low earners drink less and are less likely to exceed recommended drinking guidelines than those in higher income groups. Recent evidence from the ONS shows that the highest earners (those earning £40,000 and above annually) are more likely to be frequent drinkers and twice as likely to “binge” on their heaviest drinking day when compared with the lowest earners. Minimum pricing also fails to target irresponsible drinking: when calculating the elasticity of alcohol products, the Sheffield model’s analysis shows that, overall, heavier drinkers are least responsive to price changes. Responsible drinkers on a budget will be hit harder than irresponsible drinkers with higher incomes. The architects of the Sheffield Study have admitted that minimum pricing will not tackle binge drinking. In fact, the research shows that those drinkers most commonly associated with alcohol- fuelled crime and antisocial behaviour are amongst the least likely to be affected. There is widespread evidence from around the world that there is no simple link between alcohol price, consumption and harm. Indeed, other countries alongside the UK with the highest alcohol taxes and highest prices, such as Sweden and Ireland, also experience problems with alcohol misuse. France actually has higher levels of overall consumption than the UK, but they don’t see the same levels of alcohol related harm. This suggests that alcohol consumption is more closely associated with cultural factors than price and availability. Cost of living As a value retailer, we believe minimum pricing will unfairly increase the basket-spend for the vast majority of our responsible customers, many of who are on limited incomes, at a time when household incomes continue to be squeezed and inflation continues to rise. 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