Minimum Unit Pricing of Alcohol policy: FOI release

Information requested

The reason for my request is that I feel that I am being unduly taxed for living in my native country and see only negatives from the taxes, I hope your response will alleviate my concerns.

• how has the alcohol tax impacted our country in a positive and negative way
• please provide stats since inception to include successful engagements with social services where service users have successfully been discharged from addictions services.
• please provide the alcohol related deaths, each year, include deaths as a result from alcohol, i.e. death as a result of alcohol induced violence.
• please provide the total collected revenue from the tax, per year
• document the increase per year and show the cost against each alcohol category - wine, beer,
• ciders, alcohopops, vodka, whiskey and gin, showing the difference between Scottish charges
• from supermarkets (Tesco, Morrisons and Asda) giving the English comparison.
• please show how and which Scottish services have benefited from this tax. Split this by local authority, this should also reflect the revenue generated from each Authority.
• please can you also provide the total revenue generated from employee taxation over the standard UK tax - as an employee of an English based organisation I would like this info to respond to my colleagues questions on why I have to pay a penny on the pound more than them
• please show the revenue generated in each local authority and where this money is being spent and for which services.”

Response

Please note we have interpreted your reference to “the alcohol tax” to mean Minimum Unit Pricing of alcohol.

With regards to your queries relating to Minimum Unit Pricing, the policy is a whole population measure which sets a floor price below which alcohol cannot be sold, including alcohol sold in the off trade for consumption at home. The aim of Minimum Unit Pricing is to reduce alcohol-related harm by making alcohol less affordable, it was not designed to be a tax nor generate income for the government.

With regards to your query on alcohol treatment services statistics, the Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because it is not collected by the Scottish Government. Additionally, we are not aware of any other organisation who collects this information.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

This exemption is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

With regards to your query relating to alcohol related deaths, the number of alcohol related deaths is available from National Records of Scotland (NRS) although this is an older definition, which is no longer used as the headline measure in Scotland. A link to the NRS archive section for alcohol-related deaths is here.

The measure in use in Scotland is alcohol-specific deaths. The numbers of alcohol-specific deaths for the years you are requesting are published by NRS can be found here along with a methodology note explaining the difference between the two measures.

With regards to your query on alcohol product price data in Scotland compared with England, some of the information you have requested is available from the following link:
Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) Continuation and future pricing: Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment - gov.scot

With regards to your queries relating to Income Tax, revenue from Scottish Income Tax is not hypothecated for any particular service. Income Tax is a national tax that is collected by HMRC, with revenue raised by the tax forming part of the Scottish Budget each year. You can find out more about
proposed spending across portfolios in the 2025-26 Scottish Budget document available here: Scottish Budget 2025 to 2026 - gov.scot.

Additionally, some of the information you have requested is available from the following links:

Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts – December 2024 | Scottish Fiscal Commission
Personal Incomes Statistics for the tax year 2021 to 2022 - GOV.UK

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

These exemptions are subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemptions.

We recognise that there is some public interest in release of information because of the need for open and transparent government and the contentious nature, and interest in the policy topic concerned. However, this is outweighed by the public interest on the basis that release would inhibit Ministers’ ability to have a private space in which to consider the development of Scottish Government policy decisions.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.