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Sarah Murphy MS, Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing

First published:
10 July 2025
Last updated:

The Public Health (Minimum Price for Alcohol) (Wales) Act 2018 and subsequent regulations to set and introduce a 50p minimum unit price for alcohol came into force on 2 March 2020, immediately before the start of the pandemic. 

Minimum unit pricing targets the sale of alcohol at very low prices, which is drunk in large volumes and can put people at long-term risk of cancer, stroke, heart disease, liver disease and brain damage. It is intended to help tackle alcohol-related harm by reducing the amount of alcohol consumed by hazardous and harmful drinkers and is targeted towards protecting the health of hazardous and harmful drinkers who tend to consume greater quantities of low-cost and high-alcohol content products.

Under the terms of the 2018 Act, the Welsh Government must provide a report on the operation and effect of the legislation. In preparing this report, we consulted the Senedd and other stakeholders through a 12-week consultation; survey research was undertaken by Public Health Wales and the Senedd’s Health and Social Care Committee undertook a call for evidence. The committee’s Minimum unit pricing for alcohol in Wales  report was published at the end of June. The findings from the independent Welsh Government evaluations of the Act, which were published in January, were also considered. 

The operation and effect report is available at Operation and Effect minimum pricing alcohol provisions 2020-2025 . It examines the evidence about the operation and effect of minimum unit pricing over the five-year period from March 2020 to the end of February 2025. Several significant external factors have influenced the conclusions, which can be drawn from the available evidence. The introduction of the legislation coincided with the start of the pandemic, which was followed by the cost-of-living crisis – a period marked by persistently high inflation. These factors introduced significant complexity to the evaluation process and have likely influenced people’s attitudes towards alcohol, its price, and patterns of purchasing and consumption.

Despite these challenges, the independent evaluations concluded the evidence suggests a generally positive finding for the implementation of minimum unit pricing, although some limitations and challenges remain. The evidence presents a broadly positive picture of minimum pricing for alcohol as a policy measure, particularly in terms of its implementation in Wales.

The 12-week consultation gave stakeholders from the health, retail and third sectors an opportunity to consider their own experiences of minimum unit pricing – as did the Senedd’s Health and Socia Care Committee’s call for evidence. The feedback largely supported the independent evaluations’ findings.

Welsh Ministers have reviewed all the evidence presented in the operation and effect report and consider that the evidence suggests minimum pricing for alcohol has contributed towards its intended policy objectives. Overall, the operation and effect of minimum unit pricing has been broadly positive. 

There is evidence to suggest that the effectiveness of minimum unit pricing as a policy may be influenced by the price per unit at which the minimum unit price (MUP) is set. 

As such, any consideration of the future of the policy, including whether it should continue, will need to take account of the level at which the MUP is set. To support this, we have commissioned the Sheffield Addictions Research Group at the University of Sheffield, to examine this issue. Its findings, together with the evidence in the operation and effect report, will help inform the development of a proposal about the future of the minimum unit pricing provisions, which will be subject to a further public consultation. I will provide a further update to Members about this process.

Minimum pricing for alcohol is one of a wide range of health policies adopted by the Welsh Government to help tackle inequality and improve health outcomes. It is not designed to work in isolation, and we will continue to support our broad work in the substance misuse area, targeted towards prevention, support and recovery and tackling availability.