A few selected alcohol policies and related commitments have made it into several party manifestos ahead of the upcoming snap election on 12 December. Meanwhile, the Alcohol Health Alliance (AHA), who have released a manifesto for alcohol policy, are calling on the public to email their MPs to support action to address harm.
The Conservative party manifesto, Get Brexit done: unleash Britain’s potential [pdf], says they will:
"expand electronic tagging for criminals serving time outside jail, including the use of sobriety tags for those whose offending is fuelled by alcohol."
Readers may note the 2015 manifesto had committed to "make sobriety orders available to all courts in England and Wales, enforced through new alcohol monitoring tags", so arguably nothing new in policy terms. 'Sobriety tags' were trialled in London during Johnson's time as Mayor, prompting speculation that they could go national, whilst the available evaluation indicated largely successful compliance.
The latest Conservative manifesto also details an 'Alcohol Duty Review' for which it states:
"Scotch whisky is a national export that supports 42,000 jobs across the UK. Yet the tax on each bottle of Scotch sold in this country represents almost three quarters of its price. That is why over the past two years we have frozen the duty on spirits, cutting the price of a bottle of Scotch by 30p. Now, we want to do more, which is why we will review alcohol duty to ensure that our tax system is supporting British drink producers."
However, whilst reviewing alcohol duty may be considered a worthy exercise by many stakeholders, it has been highlighted that using whisky exports as a rationale is questionable given no excise duty is paid.
Within the Labour party manifesto, it says:
"We will address drug-related deaths, alcohol-related health problems and the adverse impacts of gambling as matters of public health, treated accordingly in expanded addiction support services. Alcoholic drinks will be labelled with clear health warnings. We will review the evidence on minimum pricing."
The commitment to expand addiction support services will no doubt be welcomed by many in the field who may have been affected or seen the impact of significant public health cuts over recent years, linked to decreases in numbers receiving alcohol treatment and changes in the service landscape. Similarly, health groups who have repeatedly called for Government action to deliver sufficient alcohol labelling would welcome a firm commitment to do so. Reviewing minimum pricing may also be seen by alcohol harm advocates, assuming it to be with serious intent, rather than as a possible tactic for avoiding it, as some may have seen present Government policy. Meanwhile, Wales is set to follow Scotland's 50 pence MUP by introducing it by law in March next year.
The Liberal Democrat manifesto, however, fully commits to "Introduce minimum unit pricing for alcohol, taking note of the impact of the policy in Scotland. We will also ensure universal access to addiction treatment", and also pledges to fund public information campaigns to "tackle stigmas within specific communities". The Lib Dems also commit to ending 'failed prohibitionist drugs policy', including by introducing a legal, regulated market for cannabis.
The Scottish National Party (SNP) manifesto makes no specific alcohol policy commitments, though many might note the SNPs widely applauded evidence-led approach to alcohol strategy, including of course its success in the long fought battle with sections of the alcohol industry over MUP. It does however accuse the Tories of having displayed "a shocking lack of empathy towards people struggling with addiction", likely to be largely a reference to policies including cuts that have been linked to sharp rises in drug-related deaths.
An analysis of the manifestos on drugs policy and including smaller parties is available here via Drink & Drugs News. See here for our round up of the 2015 manifestos.
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