Minimum alcohol pricing looks set to stay off the UK Government’s policy agenda until at least the next General Election, the chief executive of the country’s Wine & Spirit Trade Association has said.

Current ministers are more interested in reducing harmful drinking via the existing responsibility deal with the industry, which includes a pledge to take 1bn alcohol units out of the UK market, as well as through local initiatives, Miles Beale told delegates at the Wine & Spirit Trade Association’s (WSTA) annual conference today (25 September).

Over the summer, the UK Government backed away from plans to introduce a minimum price on alcoholic drinks, amid repeated WSTA warnings that it would penalise a majority of people who drink responsibly.

Beale cautioned that the controversial policy ‘has not disappeared’, but is ‘on the shelf’ until at least the planned General Election in 2015.