Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, the RCP’s special adviser on alcohol and chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance said:
We welcome the call from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Alcohol Misuse for the introduction of a Minimum Unit Price (MUP) for alcohol. A MUP is an almost perfect alcohol policy because it targets cheap drink bought by very heavy drinkers and leaves moderate drinkers largely unaffected. Over the last thirty years the UK has seen a fourfold increase in liver deaths as alcohol has become less expensive and more easily available. The Westminster government urgently needs to start tackling the public health harms of alcohol. The measures laid out in the APPG manifesto are a crucial first step.
For more information, please contact Morgan Evans, RCP communications and new media adviser, on 020 3075 1468 / 0779 508 8253, or email Morgan.Evans@rcplondon.ac.uk
For copies of the full APPG press release please vist the Alcohol Concern website