Alcohol Policy UK

MUP two year anniversary; IAS briefing & impact of families MESAS report

The 1st of the month marked two years since the introduction of Scotland's Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) after a long-running legal battle led by sections of the alcohol industry.

The Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) released a briefing Minimum Unit Pricing in Scotland: What we know so far about its effects on consumption and health harms [pdf]. The executive summary states "media reports have been mixed, with some claiming the policy has been a success and others claiming it has been a failure. This briefing attempts to summarise this evidence to draw conclusions about the impact of MUP based on what we know so far."

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.

Latest 2019 alcohol-specific deaths, HSE, Scotland & domestic abuse data

Alcohol-specific deaths 2018

The latest ONS figures on alcohol-specific deaths show in 2018 there were 7,551 deaths registered in the UK related to alcohol-specific causes. The rate is the second highest since records began in 2001, representing a 13% increase over the period, but down by 146 from the previous year's peak of 7,697. Alcohol-specific death rates were highest among men aged 55 to 59 years and women aged 60 to 64 years in 2018, at least twice as high among men and highest in Scotland.

An article in The Conversation explores the range of factors behind alcohol deaths, calling for better use of policy measures available to reduce alcohol harms. An IAS blog has explored the party manifestos say on alcohol policy (see APUK's analysis here) ahead of the forthcoming snap election on December 12.

Health Survey England (HSE) 2018

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.

Minimum pricing at home and away: where next?

In this guest post, Jane Hughes, a researcher at the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group (SARG), explores the current position of MUP across the UK and elsewhere, and the key issues for policy debates.

A bit like Brexit, implementation of the minimum unit pricing (MUP) policy in Scotland has had its share of twists, turns, legal challenges and divided public opinion. In Scotland, the Scottish Parliament passed legislation to introduce the policy in 2012 and, after a five-year legal challenge led by the Scotch Whisky Association, it was eventually implemented on 1^st May 2018.

'Encouraging signs' as consumption falls one year after Scotland's MUP

The first official data on alcohol sales has been released since the introduction of minimum unit pricing (MUP) in Scotland on 1st May 2018, indicating a fall in consumption to 'the lowest level seen' in Scotland since 1994 when data collection began.

The news was welcomed by supporters of the policy as an early indication that MUP may be starting to have the desired effect of reducing consumption by removing the cheapest alcoholic drinks from the off-trade market.

MUP one year on: speculation, spin & evidence?

EDIT: Consumption data has since been released - see report and analysis here.

The 1st of May 2019 marked one year since the introduction of minimum unit pricing (MUP) in Scotland, prompting mainstream media coverage and inevitable attempts to declare its impact, despite limited data as yet available.

Media speculation had also followed recent Nielsen data indicating volume sales of alcohol had increased in the first 46 weeks after MUP came into effect. Various stories claimed 'Scots are drinking more despite minimum pricing', even though the data provides no indication of how actual alcohol consumption in units (or pure litres) has changed. As others sought to clarify, the Nielsen figures only reflects 'natural' volume sales; the volume of alcoholic drinks regardless of its strength.

IAS Alert March 2019: SHAAP Women's football sponsor, Scottish alcohol policy, marketing & more

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

• COVER STORY – SHAAP becomes sponsor of Scottish Women’s Football
• How alcohol companies are using International Women’s Day to sell more drinks to women
• Scottish Labour touts new alcohol tax ahead of spring conference
• Scottish Government urges drinkers to ‘Count 14’
• The CSR doesn’t fall far from the industry
• Creating alcohol labelling chaos
• Ireland: Drink-driving figures slide into reverse
• Marketing linked to youth drinking
• Non-drinkers may still suffer from alcohol
• Ban on duty-free drinks during flights
• Computer says ‘no’: Volvo tech aims to stall drink drivers
• Alcohol, are we kidding ourselves?
• HMRC awarded for tackling alcohol fraud at source
• Lifetime risk of drinking measured in cigarettes
• ALCOHOL SNAPSHOT – Youth drinking in Nordic countries: falling everywhere, but substantial differences remain between countries

'Count 14' NHS Scotland campaign & debate on the future of alcohol guidelines

NHS Scotland has launched a new campaign to promote awareness of the recommended guidelines, whilst the journal Addiction has published a set of open access commentaries debating how drinking guidelines should be developed and communicated.

The new 'count 14' campaign follows several years of regular debate about alcohol health risks and their communication since the revised guidelines of 14 units per week, spread over three days or more, were announced by the Chief Medical Officer in 2016. Whilst based on epidemiological evidence indicating drinking at around the guideline level broadly reflects a 1% increased risk of dying from an alcohol-related condition over a lifetime, issues raised range from the interpretation of the available evidence itself through to how such messages should form policy or behaviour change approaches.

First guidelines for diagnosing fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD)

New guidelines to help healthcare professionals in diagnosing fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) have been published by the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN).

It is estimated that approximately 3.2% of babies born in the UK are affected by fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), though the guidance says currently few children are identified or receive support. As such, many children have neurodevelopmental disorders where Prenatal Alcohol Exposure (PAE) has not been considered as a possible cause. However early diagnosis and intervention from birth and in the first years of life can make significant differences to the developmental progress of affected children, thus the guidance seeks to improve understanding, identification and care for those affected.