Alcohol Policy UK

Has pub diversification ended decades of decline?

Recent ONS figures show the number of pubs and bars increased in 2019 for the first time in a decade, raising questions over whether a long term downward trend since the 1980s could be coming to an end.

The rise of 315 (0.8%) pubs and bars last year to a total of 39,130 is attributed mainly to the growth in food sales. The figures show more people are now employed in food roles than those working behind the bar and changes in people spending more on eating out and less on drinking out, though multiple factors are linked to changes in pub numbers.

AHA launch Commission for Alcohol Harm evidence call

The Alcohol Health Alliance UK (AHA) is supporting a Commission on Alcohol Harm, chaired by Baroness Finlay of Llandaff and made up of a panel of expert practitioners, cross-party parliamentarians and health leaders.

The Commission on Alcohol Harm has been established to examine the current evidence on alcohol harm, recent trends in alcohol harm and the changes needed to reduce the harm caused by alcohol. The Commission will also examine the need for a new comprehensive UK-wide alcohol strategy, highlighting there has been no national alcohol strategy for England and Wales since 2012.

IAS Alcohol Alert 2019 : The Year in Review

The Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) has released a 2019 year in review, providing an overview of the key developments featured in the IAS Alcohol Alert series:

JANUARY 2019 
The start of the year saw the release of a long-term plan for the NHS, which promised the provision of new Alcohol Care Teams to treat patients at the 50 hospitals with the worst levels of alcohol dependence-related admissions in the UK.
Meanwhile, the health secretary appeared to deny the nation had a drinking problem at all. See full edition here.

Declines in drinking amongst young people: what does the evidence say?

In this guest post Rakhi Vashishtha, a research officer at Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, Melbourne, Australia, explores the current evidence behind falls in youth drinking following publication of a recent systematic review.

For decades, alcohol consumption among young people has remained a huge concern for community, public health practitioners and policy advocates. Adolescent alcohol consumption is a well-established risk factor for range of negative health and social outcomes.

Alcohol policy mentions in the 2019 manifestos: more of the same?

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.

NHS hospital Alcohol Care Team guidance released

A set of resources relating to the delivery of hospital-based Alcohol Care Teams (ACTs) has been released.

The guidance, co-produced with Public Health England (PHE), follows a commitment in the NHS Long Term Plan (LTP) earlier this year to establish ACTs in hospitals with the highest rate of alcohol dependence-related admissions.

A summary document [pdf] sets out the role of ACTs as part of an effective local area alcohol treatment system, also supported by a core service descriptor [pdf], a case study example [pdf], and a checklist for commissioners [XLS].

The guidance states admission to hospital is 'often the first time alcohol dependence is identified and diagnosed as an underlying or primary condition, so hospital admission provides an ideal opportunity for early intervention and access to more comprehensive alcohol treatment.'

IAS Alert October 2019: marketing, Russia policy effects, MUP impacts, cancer & more

The latest Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) Alcohol Alert: October 2019 is now available (here for PDF version). Read the editorial here and articles below:

• IAS hosts alcohol marketing event on protecting the vulnerable
• Drastic decline in alcohol-related deaths in Russia
• Does the EU Alcohol Health Forum have a future?
• MUP short-term economic impact on alcohol industry ‘modest’
• Facebook identifies kids ‘interested in’ booze for advertisers
• Halve alcohol guidelines to minimise dementia risk
• Money motivates GPs to initiate alcohol screening
• Alcohol duty cuts linked to 2,000 additional deaths in England
• Alcohol industry messaging puts pregnant women at risk
• Wales sets March 2020 date for 50p MUP
• Review calls time on use of gender stereotypes in alcohol marketing
• Cancer risk 30 times more likely for those who drink AND smoke
• ALCOHOL SNAPSHOT: Restrictive alcohol policies have increased the number of non-drinkers in Russia

UK alcohol clinical guidelines to be developed

Public Health England (PHE) has announced it will lead the development of UK-wide clinical guidelines for alcohol treatment to support alcohol treatment practice.

The guidelines aim to develop a clear consensus on good practice and help services to implement interventions for harmful and dependent drinking as recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) CG115 guideline. The guideline will aim to promote and support consistent good practice and improve the quality of service provision, resulting in better outcomes.

The guidelines will provide:

Alcohol duty cuts responsible for 2,000 deaths says SARG report

A new report explores the impact of cuts to alcohol duties made in recent years, estimating it may have led to as many as 2,000 deaths in England.

Download Modelling the impact of alcohol duty policies since 2012 in England and Scotland [pdf] or see SARG and IAS summary here.

Conducted by the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group (SARG) on behalf of the Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS), the report estimates the scrapping the alcohol duty escalator has resulted in £341 million in additional costs to the NHS, and other costs such as half a million additional lost days of work at a cost to the economy of £62 million.

Findings bulletins: brief interventions implementation, improving mental health and SUD care, residential evidence & more

Recent bulletins from the Findings drug and alcohol bank:

Major trial of ways to extend brief alcohol interventions

Could combinations of three strategies – training and support, financial reimbursement, and the opportunity to refer patients to a website – effectively and cost-effectively boost delivery of brief alcohol interventions in five European countries, including England? The aim was to find the best way to narrow the gap in primary care between the number of patients who could benefit from these interventions and those who receive them. An important trial whose findings we analyse in depth, and for which we have updated our analysis of the cost-effectiveness findings.

What would better mental health and substance use care look like?