As the new government at Westminster begins to set out its agenda, the alcohol industry has been quick off the mark to persuade new ministers to maintain historically low levels of alcohol duty. While this boosts their profits, it comes at a substantial cost to our health and wellbeing.

During the election campaign and since polling day, the Scotch Whisky Association in particular has claimed that the increase in alcohol duty last August, which was in line with inflation and did no more than maintain the true value of the duty level, resulted in a decrease in tax revenues to the Treasury in the period after it was introduced.

What they didn’t say is that they used the four-month notice of the duty increase given by the then Chancellor to release higher than usual levels of product onto the market while duty was at the lower rate.

So instead of considering only the short window ahead of the duty increase coming into effect as the SWA does, it is necessary to take the full picture into account by looking at the whole of 2023-24, which shows duty receipts to the Treasury are almost identical to the previous year. So the SWA’s claim that raising taxes to keep up with inflation reduces Government revenue is misleading at best.

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This claim on impact of duty increases on Treasury tax take has been central to the alcohol industry’s annual Budget lobbying campaign for some time. And for the spirits industry in particular, these campaigns have been successful, with duty cut in real terms in 8 of the last 10 years.

If the lost revenue, estimated at over £20Bn since 2013 is not reason enough to be concerned, the human cost of alcohol duty falling in real terms certainly is. Supermarkets, with their buying power and low overheads coupled with lower alcohol taxes sell alcoholic drinks cheaply which increases consumption in high risk drinkers and all the problems that go along with this.

In Scotland, the impact of real terms duty cuts has been mitigated by Minimum Unit Price, but at UK level, deaths caused by alcohol are now the highest on record.

This process of releasing more product before a tax increase – known as forestalling – is not inevitable. The duty escalator under the last Labour government – where duty rose 2% above inflation each year – was implemented each time within days of being announced at the budget, thus preventing forestalling.

While the duty escalator was in place, alcohol deaths fell in the UK, with the greatest fall in Scotland where other policy measures were introduced alongside the duty increase. The duty escalator increased public funds and improved our health.

The SWA plays the leading role in lobbying for duty cuts, but it is products other than whisky which benefit most from their work. Vodka is by some distance the biggest selling spirit in Scotland while across the UK, Scotch Whisky accounts for around 20% of the spirits market. Of course, many of the major members of the SWA are involved in vodka and other spirit production, but whisky is the poster child when it comes to Budget lobbying.

Instead of accepting the alcohol producers’ claims at face value, the new government would be well-advised to look at the balance sheet for alcohol and our economy as a whole. While alcohol production adds value in employment and via taxation, it also costs us dearly: a report by the Social Market Foundation for SHAAP last year estimated alcohol could cost society in Scotland £5 - £10bn including well over £1bn in lost productivity costs.

We know the alcohol industry is very effective in its lobbying – the evidence speaks for itself. And the SWA has already held a welcome reception for the new intake of MPs, on top of round-after-round of visits by parliamentary candidates, MPs and potential government ministers, including our new Prime Minister, to distilleries across the country.

But parliamentarians need to examine their claims carefully. I would urge the new government to act in the best interests of health and wellbeing of the people who elect it and ensure its approach to alcohol duty is used for the public good, not to line the pockets of Big Alcohol.

Dr Peter Rice is Chair of Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems and former Consultant Psychiatrist at NHS Tayside