Could a minimum alcohol charge reduce deaths?

Should there be a minimum price for alcohol to stop people bingeing on cheap booze? Five years ago David Cameron floated the idea, then dropped it. Then the Scottish government’s attempt to do it became delayed in the courts after a challenge from the Scotch whisky industry.

Now it’s the turn of the Welsh government. It is proposing a minimum charge of 50p per unit of alcohol as it says that would save up to 50 Welsh lives a year and take the pressure of overstretched accident and emergency wards.