King's College London

Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) is a policy that sets a minimum price for alcoholic drinks, based on how much alcohol they contain (measured in ‘units’). This means that drinks cannot be sold for less than a set amount per unit of alcohol.

It increases the price of alcoholic drinks, mainly affecting cheaper, stronger drinks – the kinds often bought by people most at risk of harm from drinking. Since 2018, MUP has been introduced in places such as Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and parts of Australia.

There is more and more research showing that MUP can help to reduce harm from alcohol, especially in Scotland. However, this research has not been looked at in much detail.

In Scotland, research shows that MUP might improve people’s health but does not clearly show which results are most valid or important (the more trustworthy or important a result is, the more confident the government can be in making changes to policy). This has made it difficult for the government to understand what the research is telling them about the impact of MUP.

We have teamed up with experts in Sheffield and Australia to complete an in-depth look at all the research on MUP, helping to give a clear answer on how well it works.

Leadership

John Holmes (University of Sheffield), Principle Investigator

Colin Angus (University of Sheffield), Investigator

Ellen McGrane (University of Sheffield), Investigator

Esther Moore (University of Sheffield), Investigator

Anastasios Bastounis (University of Sheffield), Investigator

We will carefully collect all the information from the research on MUP, check how valid and important it is, and sum up the results to explain the impact of MUP. The methods we use will follow international guidelines.

• We will search for research articles and government reports that: Provide results based on numbers (known as ‘quantitative data’)
• Were published between January 2010 and February 2025
• Explore how MUP has impacted consumption of alcohol, alcohol-related health harms (like illness or death), and social harms (like crime).

We will use trusted methods to decide how strong and valid each study is, how important each kind of outcome is (like consumption, health harms, social harms), and how confident we can be in the results.

The UK government is looking at different ways to reduce the harm caused by alcohol, and MUP is one of the main policies recommended by experts. This review will help the government to make its decisions by pulling together all the research on MUP and how well it works, clearly showing which results (like improvements in health) have strong proof behind them.

It will also help the general public to understand MUP better. We will share our findings in different ways (such as a report, journal article, blog post) so that the information can be used to make changes to policy which will improve people’s health.