Cheap supermarket drink may be sounding the death knell for Scottish off-licences.

In Dundee, there were six fewer off-licences at the end of 2006 compared to 2005, while in Angus and Fife there were 13 and five respectively—in Perth and Kinross, however, there were two more in 2006 than in the previous year.

In Scotland as a whole there were 90 fewer liquor licences at the end of 2006 than there were in 2005.

Scottish Beer and Pub Association (SBPA) chief executive Patrick Browne said, “These figures suggest that the number of pub licensed premises in Scotland has remained more or less constant over the last year to the end of 2006, which has been the position in Scotland for several years, which is a reflection of the fact that pubs are diversifying into areas like food and entertainment, rather than being focused on selling alcohol.

“Our research, however, also suggests that there has been a very marked fall in the number of off-sales licensed premises of 181, which is surprising given that the number of off- licensed premises has been growing steadily for a number of years.

“This may suggest that the larger supermarket developments which have taken place in Scotland over the last few years are now beginning to impact on the independent licensed grocer sector in Scotland.”

The SBPA said the figures should be treated with some caution and believes that there were some “unexplained fluctuations” in the numbers of licensed premises reported in previous Executive documents and that there may be errors in the numbers of licences issued during 2005.

Mr Browne added, “These anomalies have been highlighted with the Scottish Executive and require explanation— particularly given the importance which many licensing boards place on these numbers in making judgements about whether there are too many licensed premises within their areas.

“Clearly, if fluctuating or incorrect numbers are used in making these comparisons, then this would be unwise and, as such, licensing boards should be very cautious in making use of these figures until these anomalies have been explained and corrected.

“These issues need to be resolved,” he concluded.