Research by a campaign group has suggested that alcoholic drinks across Britain are being sold at “pocket money” prices, with drinks commonly bought by underage drinkers often being the cheapest.

According to the Alcohol Health Alliance (AHA), white cider, which is sold for 16p per alcohol unit, is a favourite among teenagers.

Ministers are still in talks over a review for the minimum pricing policy for alcoholic beverages.

In a separate report, it was suggested that underage drinking for girls in the UK is considerably higher than average. The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development) studied 35 countries and discovered that 31 percent of girls aged 15 said they had been drunk at least twice, in comparison to 26 percent of boys.

The AHA studied the cost of 480 alcoholic drinks on sale in off-licences and major supermarkets in London, Scotland and north-east and north-west England. The research found that both Tesco and Asda are selling perry at 19p a unit, but the same drink is on sale in Sainsbury’s for 22p a unit. Morrisons is selling cider at 20p a unit. Some supermarkets were selling multipacks of lager for 23p a unit, vodka for 36p per unit and wine for 32p per unit. The report pointed out that a three-litre bottle of cider containing 22.5 litres of alcohol was available at Bargain Booze for £3.49.

The AHA said that underage children tend to go for the cheaper drinks, especially cheap vodka and white cider. They said that though the lowest price they reported was 16p per unit, they did find a wide rang of drinks being sold for 25p or less and this is half of the minimum unit price of 50p recommended by alcohol charities and health bodies.