Scottish Ministers are set to rethink controversial plans to ban under-21s from buying alcohol in off-sales and to establish separate supermarket checkouts for people buying drink.

The move to rein in some of the proposals aimed at ending Scotland's “booze and blade” culture comes days after they were formally unveiled as part of Alex Salmond's “big bang” legislative programme in Holyrood.

Although it will amount to an embarrassing climbdown, senior Government figures now want to concentrate any crackdown in areas where binge-drinking is a problem, after the plans were roundly condemned.

Kenny MacAskill, the Justice Secretary, also conceded that some of his radical moves to curb alcohol abuse would require the support of the Westminster Parliament if they were to succeed.

Reports that the hardline antialcohol strategy is to be softened come as Shona Robison, the Public Health Minister, prepares to visit Stenhousemuir today - one of the areas where a pilot scheme was carried out to ban off-licenses for the under-21s.

Calls to abandon the more draconian elements of the plans were led yesterday by the Coalition Against Raising the Drinking Age in Scotland (Cardas). It claimed that the number of minor assaults had risen during the pilot project. Tom French, Cardas co-ordinator, said: “If the police have conceded - based on the actual results - that these trials were inconclusive, and the official analysis shows this to be the case, it beggars belief that the Scottish Government are still pedalling out mistruths in some attempt to hold together their increasingly shaky case for raising the minimum purchase age.”

The plans have also faced strong critcism from retailers, who will this week meet Mr MacAskill to air their concerns. The supermarket chain Morrisons has claimed that the government's plans are unpopular and counterproductive. It says that an analysis of its stores in England where there are separate alcohol queues revealed that sales were 4 per cent higher than usual.

Tavish Scott, the Scottish Lib Dem leader, said: “How can anyone seriously suggest that a 19-year-old soldier returning from Afghanistan is responsible enough to fight for his country but not buy a bottle of beer to take home with him?”

A Scottish Government spokeswoman tried to play down the impact of the criticism yesterday.

She said: “We welcome all engagement with the consultation process, because alcohol misuse costs Scotland at least £2.25 billion every year - it's affecting our health service, our criminal justice system and our economy, and we need to take action now to rebalance our relationship with alcohol.”

Times Recommends

• Everyone will get vaccine against swine flu
• Artificial sperm and the race to build a baby
• BBC jets out stars to tout for prizes