A SPIKE in the number of alcohol-related deaths in Scotland has triggered a further wave of fresh calls for minimum pricing and concerns over funding for support services.

The Church of Scotland said the government must continue to try and introduce a minimum pricing for alcohol policy which would be set at 50p per unit to increase the cost of cheap beers, ciders, wine and spirits.

Addaction, one of the largest providers of alcohol services in Scotland, accused the whisky industry of "dragging our government through the European courts" over its challenge to the police.

Meanwhile, one of the country's leading experts on the impact of alcohol on health, said the recent decline in alcohol consumption in Scotland may be down to the global economic slump but that this was on the cusp of changing.

Dr Peter Rice, of Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems, said: “There is a strong international consensus among health organisations that affordability is key to levels of alcohol consumption and therefore harm and it may be that as the economy improves, alcohol is becoming more affordable again.

"This is why we need minimum unit pricing as a safety mechanism. It is frustrating that the legal action, led by the Scotch Whisky Association, has delayed the introduction of this policy in Scotland.”

Figures released earlier this week have shown the number of alcohol-related deaths in Scotland increased for the second year in a row.

Statistics unveiled by the National Records of Scotland (NRS) show around 20 deaths a week are connected to alcohol abuse, up five per cent on the previous year.

But the figures remain significantly lower than in the early part of the previous decade and around one-quarter less than 2006.

In response the whisky industry cited the longer term trend of a drop in deaths and consumption, adding it did not believe minimum unit pricing of alcohol was the right way to tackle misuse.

But Calum Murray, a director with the Church of Scotland's social care arm Crossreach, said: "The government is on the right track with that because alcohol is too cheap, cheaper than water in some cases which is clearly wrong.

"I would commend it for some degree of perseverance.

"We can hardly be surprised that these figures come at a time when there has been a diminution in funding to (alcohol) services."

Andrew Horne, director of Addaction Scotland, said: "The most vulnerable people in Scotland continue to have access to scandalously cheap alcohol, with all the damage that entails to their lives, families and communities.

“There is substantial evidence minimum pricing would reduce harm among our most vulnerable drinkers. We can’t afford to sit on our hands while the death toll from alcohol misuse continues to rise, and we can’t allow profits to be put ahead of health and public safety.”