Current status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 17 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it continues to support the introduction of minimum pricing as a means of tackling problems with alcohol.
This administration has put in place a comprehensive framework of over 40 actions which, taken together, will help reduce consumption and harm and help rebalance our relationship with alcohol. However, I am clear - and this is a view shared by alcohol experts around the world including the World Health Organization - that our efforts will be hampered if some colleagues in the chamber continue to oppose minimum pricing while failing to suggest any alternative measures that would be equally effective.