Alcohol Policy UK

Trends in alcohol consumption and deaths – Must what comes down go back up?

This guest post by John Holmes orginally appeared on his personal blog, APE: Alcohol Policy and Epidemiology and has been reproduced with his permission. The piece represents his views only and not those of the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group.

In April, a BMJ analysis piece by Nick Sheron and Ian Gilmore argued that the recent downward trend in alcohol-related deaths in England and Wales was most likely caused by economic factors.  In particular, it pointed to the global recession and the alcohol duty escalator which, between 2008 and 2013, raised alcohol taxes by 2% above inflation each year.  Sheron and Gilmore’s main concern was that the combination of subsequent duty cuts and the UK’s economic recovery mean “the relentless rise [in alcohol-related deaths which preceded the downturn] is likely to resume as incomes outstrip rises in taxation”.

Concerns over evidence for nalmefene: where next for drugs to treat dependence?

A recently published study published in the journal Addiction has raised questions over the validity of evidence that led to the approval of nalmefene as a drug for the treatment of alcohol dependence. The study says that 'weak evidence' raises dilemmas for clinicians and poses questions for the alcohol field and the process for approving drugs.

Why are children & young people drinking less? IAS report challenges common theories

A new report from the Institute of Alcohol Studies suggests that recent declines in underage drinking are most likely due to improvements in parenting and the reduced affordability of alcohol, challenging a number of more commonly credited theories such as better enforcement or the role of social media.

Download Youthful Abandon: why are young people drinking less? [pdf]

Drinking amongst children and younger people has declined significantly, with a 23% drop in the number of 11-15 year olds trying alcohol in 2014 compared to 2003. Whilst the report itself specifically focusses on drinking amongst under 18s as 'underage drinkers', younger people overall have been largely behind a wider downshift in consumption.

Do university student’s views on alcohol control policies matter?

In this guest post Dr Richard Cooke, of the Department of Psychology at Aston University, explores the role of university student’s views of alcohol policies and initial findings from the CALIBRATE study.

Various alcohol control policies (e.g., increasing the price of alcohol, teaching people alcohol refusal skills, raising the legal drinking age) have been proposed to reduce hazardous alcohol consumption. Rarely are these looked at specifically in the context of university students specifically, despite significant media attention being focused on ‘binge drinking’ amongst younger drinkers.

Such control policies tend to be categorised as educational (e.g., teaching people alcohol refusal skills) or restrictive (e.g., raising the legal drinking age). Anderson et al.'s (2009) review of existing evidence found that restrictive policies were more effective at reducing alcohol-related harm than educational policies. However as has been seen with pricing debates, the views of the general population are often at odds with the evidence, leading to various policy dilemmas.

Alcohol addiction and treatment over 40 years: NDSAG 2016 FEAD videos

A new series of videos covering expert presentations on addiction, recovery and treatment are now available from the Film Exchange on Alcohol and Drugs (FEAD).

The speakers were filmed at the 40th New Directions in the Study of Alcohol Group (NDSAG) 2016 conference in Bradford earlier this year, which included a look at the lessons and developments in alcohol treatment over the last 40 years, as well as current PhD research and other perspectives. 

Presentations available to download or view include:

'Statistics on Alcohol, England, 2016': harms yet to follow consumption fall

The annual Statistics on Alcohol for England 2016 has been released, detailing national data for key alcohol-related indicators and health harms.

Mainly bringing together previously reported alcohol data releases, the current trend picture remains one of still rising alcohol harms overall - particularly hospital admissions (broad measure) and deaths.

However current harm trends may start to plateua (as seen in the 'narrow' admissions measure) or indeed fall over coming years in response to a period of falling consumption through 2004 - 2014. Consumption though has declined most significantly amongst children and young people rather than amongst older adults, with significant regional variations also evident across the different measures.

Levels of alcohol misuse, dependence and interventions in the UK criminal justice system

A research team at Teesside University, led by Professor Newbury-Birch have carried out a systematic review of literature which shows the level of alcohol misuse at different stages of the Criminal Justice System (CJS) in the UK. See the full research paper here.

Levels of alcohol misuse are much higher in the CJS at around 75%, than in the general population where it is around 25%. Furthermore over a third of people involved in the CJS have some level of alcohol dependency, compared with 4% in the general population.

News & updates June 2016: MUP, Euro 2016, Heineken F1 deal & research in the news

Selected media stories since the May roundup:

Minimum unit pricing (MUP) was in the Scottish media as the legal case returned to the Court of Session in Edinburgh for the first of two further hearings.

MUP was also being further politicised by being dragged into the Brexit debate; leave campaigners claiming the failure to implement was an example of a lack of sovereignty, despite the case yet to be concluded. The Scottish Licensed Trade Association also wrote in to the Herald to highlight not all sections of the industry were against MUP; indeed they were supporters of it to 'stop it being used as a loss leader in major supermarkets', and that 'alcohol should not be just another "pile it high, sell it cheap” commodity'. A final decision is expected shortly.

Findings bulletins: minimum pricing beats tax rises, social norms for prevention & more

Recent bulletins from the drug and alcohol bank:

Minimum pricing for alcohol targets harm better than tax rises

Whether alcohol tax rises would be an acceptable and effective alternative could determine the legality under EU law of Scotland’s law permitting a minimum unit price for alcohol. This analysis predicts tax rises would curb consumption and save lives, but not without perhaps unacceptably hitting the pockets of non-harmful drinkers.

‘Everyone’s not doing it’ message offers hope for prevention