Expert: Drink consumption will fall if minimum price brought in

Alcohol consumption has dropped in Canada by between 3%-8% after minimum prices were introduced, a leading expert has said.

John Holmes told a conference on alcohol in Dublin that similar plans in Scotland would be expected to cut drinking levels by 5.5%.

The Sheffield University academic said models his team of researchers had carried out on behalf of the Scottish government predicted that a 50 pence minimum level per unit of alcohol would mean savings of almost £1bn (€1.25bn), 318 fewer deaths, and 6,500 less hospital admissions after 10 years.