Alcohol Policy UK

Evaluation of Reduce The Strength schemes in two London Boroughs

In recent years a growing number of off-licenses have been reportedly agreeing to adopt 'Reducing The Strength' (RtS) initiatives, whereby shops agree not to sell beer or cider of 6.5% ABV or above.

In 2014 we reported on these schemes which were being said to have positive impacts on street drinking and other issues, despite sections of the trade raising concerns or suggesting the opposite effect in some areas.

Changing the environment? Nudging pubs and zero alcohol awards

Two initiatives encouraging products and places that support those who want to drink less or abstain have plans to develop further. As non-industry led projects, they raise interesting questions over the role and scope of influencing drinking environments.

Zero alcohol awards

Alcohol Concern recently concluded its first 'Zero Alcohol Awards' programme to recognise and reward the range of zero-alcohol drinks provided by retailers, bars and pubs across the country. Sponsored by Britvic, it also aimed to recognise innovators bringing new products to the market and creating new environments to enjoy them in.

News & updates March 2016: lower strength drinks; 'One You'; alcohol tags; wine taxation; students; gin; sober raving

Selected media stories since the February roundup:

News

More lower strength drinks options are needed to tackle drink-related health problems, according to the Local Government Association (LGA). The LGA is urging the drinks industry to produce more drinks with fewer or zero units of alcohol and wants government to support this by extending current tax breaks on such drinks. BBC and LGA release.

Licensing Act has caused 'significant problems' for communities says IAS report

An extensive review of the 2003 Licensing Act has identified a number of problems associated with the Act and its implementation, finding the interests of the licensed trade have benefited over those of local communities.

‘The Licensing Act (2003): its uses and abuses 10 years on [pdf]’ calls into question the impact of the Act from the perspective of reducing alcohol-related harms, though of course such issues are not easily separated from the benefits of the trade. See here for the summary report [pdf] and podcast.

HMRC Alcohol Strategy - can it close the 'alcohol tax gap'?

The absence of a national alcohol strategy may be a current alcohol policy hot topic, though alcohol tax fraud has had its own new alcohol strategy released.

'The HMRC Alcohol Strategy: Modernising alcohol taxes to tackle fraud and reduce burdens on alcohol businesses' [pdf] aims to reduce the alcohol tax gap of around £1.2 billion, estimated to be worth 8% of the total £10.5 billion tax revenue (including VAT). However HMRC figures suggest the trend has been broadly flat over recent years, suggesting the scale of the challenge.

Partnership and personal responsibility: alcohol policy now within crime strategy

The existence of a national alcohol strategy for England is arguably no more; a new crime prevention strategy has set out alcohol-related crime objectives, but signals the end of a central policy also covering health and other areas previously unified in a single document.

In 2004 the first national strategy for England set out a framework spanning prevention, treatment, crime, and other key areas. Largely viewed as only any good for getting the ball rolling, it was subsequently met with the expansive 'Safe. Sociable. Sensible' strategy and local toolkit in 2007.

Liverpool project reduces sales to 'drunks'

A new evaluation report shows that the illegal sale of alcohol to intoxicated customers in Liverpool was reduced by an intervention designed to improve awareness and enforcement of server law.

Download 'Evaluation of the Liverpool Drink Less Enjoy More intervention' [pdf]

The project evolved from an earlier 'Say No To Drunks' initiative developed by local agencies, which aimed to address the sale of alcohol to intoxicated customers in the city’s nightlife through a 'multi-component approach'. It aimed to increase awareness of legislation; support bar staff compliance with the law; provide a strong deterrence to selling alcohol to drunks; and promote responsible drinking amongst nightlife users.

LGA say council chiefs want public health licensing objective

A new survey by the Local Government Association (LGA) says nearly 90% of council health chiefs want a public health objective included in a revamped Licensing Act, according to an LGA release.

Additionally the survey found that nine out of ten Directors of Public Health said adding a public health objective to the Licensing Act would help them do their jobs more effectively. Councils also wanted greater access to NHS data, including hospital admissions and ambulance call-out details to assist decision making.

SHAAP release 'top 20 alcohol policy actions' manifesto

SHAAP (Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems) has released a 'top 20 manifesto' for action on alcohol ahead of the upcoming Holyrood Scottish Parliament election in May.

'SHAAP's Top Twenty: A Manifesto for Action on Alcohol' [pdf] outlines 20 policy recommendations to reduce and prevent alcohol-related harms, with a particular emphasis on price, availability and marketing action. SHAAP say alcohol death rates in Scotland are almost twice the level they were in the early 1980s and that hospital admissions for alcoholic liver disease have more than quadrupled in the past 30 years. Twenty Scots are reported to die every week because of alcohol.

Ten years on from the 2004 Licensing Act: fit for purpose?

This week saw ten years since the 2003 Licensing Act came into force, inevitably prompting a retrospective on some of the media portrayals predicting '24 hour drinking' carnage.

Of course as time has shown, a proliferation of all night drinking venues and associated problems did not materialise - yet neither has a "continental café culture" emerged, as some politicians had claimed. More complex though is disentangling the various changes in alcohol consumption and other measures from the wide range of influences on drinking patterns.