Home > Public attitudes to Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) for alcohol in Scotland.

Ferguson, Karl and Beeston, Clare and Giles, Lucie (2020) Public attitudes to Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) for alcohol in Scotland. Edinburgh: Public Health Scotland.

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Public Health Scotland has published an analysis of responses to relevant questions in the 2013, 2015 and 2019 Scottish Social Attitude Surveys (SSAS), which asked a representative sample of the Scottish adult population about their attitudes to Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP). Findings suggest that the public are more in favour of MUP than against, and that public attitudes have become more favourable over time.

Each wave of the survey found more respondents in favour of MUP than against, the proportion in favour has increased over time and the proportion against has fallen. In 2015, 41.3% of respondents were in favour and 33.4% were against MUP, but by 2019 respondents were almost twice as likely to be in favour (49.8%) than to be against (27.6%).

Analysis by age, sex and Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation quintile found that all sub-groups had greater proportions of respondents in favour of MUP than against.

When respondents were asked why they held their particular attitude, the most common reasons for being in favour of MUP related to a perception that alcohol is a problem to be addressed in Scotland. The most common reasons for being against were concerned with whether or not MUP would be effective in reducing alcohol-related harm. Reasons for being for or against MUP were found to have changed little over time.


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