The Alcohol Health Alliance (AHA) will today (24 January 2013) submit its response to the public consultation on the government’s Alcohol Strategy for England and Wales. The response expresses strong support for plans to introduce a minimum unit price (MUP) and a ban on multi-buy deals for alcohol products.
The Alliance, which consists of leading medical bodies and charities, welcomes the move to target cheap alcohol that is linked to health and social problems. The AHA says a minimum price would target the heaviest drinkers and individuals who drink moderately should not be affected.
However, the AHA believes the government should go further in its proposals and set the MUP level at 50p, instead of the proposed 45p. Evidence suggests this would save more lives and prevent more crime.[i]
The AHA also welcomes the proposal to allow local authorities to take the health harms of alcohol into account when determining the density of licensed premises in their area. However, it calls on the government to go further, arguing that public health should be a licensing objective in its own right.
Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance said:
I welcome the government’s intention to introduce a minimum unit price on alcohol, which is the fairest and most targeted way of helping those most at risk of damage to their health – young people and the heaviest drinkers. We will continue to seek a minimum unit price of at least 50p, which research shows would reduce total alcohol consumption by 6.7%, saving around 20,000 hospital admissions in the first year.
Eric Appleby, chief executive of Alcohol Concern said:
We have to stop talking and start acting to turn the tide on alcohol misuse. Up and down the country we’re paying a heavy price because of it. Our hospitals are straining under the burden, our police forces and ambulance services are stretched to the limits and communities are left picking up the pieces.
We must introduce a minimum unit price if we are to protect the young and the vulnerable. Because it’s a targeted measure aimed at heavy drinkers it will have little impact on the pockets of moderate drinkers. All the evidence shows it will save hundreds of lives and the economy millions. But we cannot bring about change through price alone, we need to give local authorities and police forces the tools they need to get a firm grip on the way alcohol is being sold in their area through tighter controls on licensing.
Dr. Vivienne Nathanson, director of professional activities at the British Medical Association, said:
Doctors witness the human cost of alcohol misuse every day, from emergency admissions to hospital to witnessing the damage to health caused by alcohol misuse on patients and their families. The evidence shows that more lives will be saved if the minimum price is set at 50p therefore the BMA is calling on the government to listen to the evidence and set it at this level.
The deadline for responses to the consultation is Wednesday 6 February 2013.
Access the full AHA consultation response from the AHA pages of the RCP website
Access more information on the government’s Alcohol Strategy Consultation
[i] Purshouse, R et al, 2009. Modelling to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of public health related strategies and interventions to reduce alcohol attributable harm in England using the Sheffield Alcohol Policy Model version 2.0. Report to the NICE Public Health Programme Development Group.