Minimum pricing of alcohol has had no economic impact on the drinks industry in Scotland, a report has found.

Minimum unit pricing has been in place since 2018 and placed a minimum charge of 50p per unit of alcohol.

Concerns were raised ahead of its enforcement about the potential impact on the drinks industry, but a report commissioned by Public Health Scotland has found no significant economic ramifications.

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The research, done by Frontier Economics, said: "Evidence gathered does not suggest that MUP has significantly impacted the economic performance of the alcoholic drinks industry in Scotland."

Researchers looked at five indicators of performance within the industry; the number of businesses, employment, total sales, value of output and gross value added (GVA), as well as conducting interviews with industry figures.

The report stated: "The consistent message the researchers heard was that the new equilibrium of industry performance in Scotland was characterised by lower volumes but higher prices that largely balanced out, with no reported direct impacts of MUP on store or facility openings or closures or staffing."

"There were one or two individual smaller or specialist retailers who perceived that MUP had reduced their revenues or profits or limited opportunities for growth, though not to an extent that affected staffing or store viability, while others reported no impact."

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Andrew Leicester, the associate director and lead researcher at Frontier Economics, said: "Our analysis of detailed quantitative data broken down by country and sub-sector of the alcoholic drinks industry does not find compelling evidence of observable impacts of MUP on industry performance in the years immediately following its introduction.

"Case study interviews from across different parts of the industry largely validate this view, recognising that MUP clearly did affect the behaviour of producers and retailers to adapt rapidly to new limits on pricing but not in ways that appear to have significantly affected overall industry performance in the medium-run."