A report by researchers at the University of Bath have estimated the costs of binge drinking to the UK economy, and explored the potential impact of key policy options. It suggests while pricing policies in particular may be able to mitigate the costs to society, economic policies should not be used in isolation.
Download the full report, The cost of bringe drinking in the UK [pdf], see the summary here or the Independent's take.
The research looks at the effects of 'binge drinking' on A&E admissions, road accidents, arrests and the number of police officers on duty and estimates that binge drinking increases:
- The average number of daily injury-related A&E admissions by 8% (equivalent to 2,504 additional daily admissions nationally).
- The daily average of road accidents by 17% (equivalent to 82 additional accidents per day nationally).
- The average number of alcohol-related arrests by 45% (equivalent to 786 additional arrests per day nationally).
- The number of police officers on duty by around 30% (equivalent to an additional 3.2 police officers on duty at the weekend for every 10,000 people in the country).
Minimum pricing and other policy responses?
The research calculates the cost of binge drinking to roughly £4.86 billion per year, which equates to £77 per year per capita - of course this figure is less than the £21 billion a year estimated cost for all types of alcohol misuse in England.
It explores what impact minimum unit pricing (MUP), alcohol excise taxes and a higher minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) could have. For MUP, it suggests that a 52 pence MUP would 'offset' the economic costs; 10 pence higher than the current average retail price of 42p per unit for 2013/14.
Tax increases could also be used to offset the costs, although this would require an overall 23% increase which would equate to an extra 23p per pint of beer and 99p per bottle of wine.
Increasing the minimum level drinking age would have some impact on binge drinking costs. Increasing the drinking purchase age to 21 would potentially reduce the number of road accidents by 15%, leading to a £100 million saving. However this saving represents only 2.1% of the total £4.86 billion and the report emphasises that pricing responses should not be adopted in isolation of other alcohol policy.
Binge drinking - back to the fore?
The report highlights that it is the first to look at more detail into the economic impacts of binge drinking, as opposed to more frequent or generalised patterns of alcohol use. However the concept of 'binge drinking' has been attacked from multiple perspectives.
Firstly, frequency of drinking, binge or otherwise, is important, so looking at single occasion drinking may not accurately reflect an overall level of risk. Secondly, 'binge drinking' as a definition is highly subjective and applied widely either to describe amounts or styles of drinking. Finally, there are undoubtedly multiple and complex factors that surround binge drinking, which public health messages have often overlooked.
The report defines binge drinking 'as the consumption of 12+ units of alcohol in any one period of drinking and typically taking place on Friday and Saturday nights among individuals aged between 18 and 30'. However Government statistics define binge drinking as consuming twice the daily recommended guidelines in one session.
A 2011 Demos report argued that binge drinking should be recognised as 'young adults that drink to extreme excess, often in an intentionally reckless and very public way, putting themselves and others at risk of harm'. More recently, Drinkaware have centred much of its work around research into 'drunken nights out', a package of behaviours in which drinkers make calculated choices relating to the risks and benefits of deliberate intoxication.
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