NEWS ROUND-UP
Government scraps Public
Health England
The government is
abolishing Public
Health England (PHE),
it has announced. A
new organisation,
The National Institute for Health
Protection (NIHP), will instead bring
together PHE and NHS Test and Trace
and focus on a ‘rigorous science-led
approach to public health protection’.
Although the new body is
starting work immediately it
will not be formalised until next
spring in order to ‘minimise
disruption’, the government says.
While NIHP’s responsibilities
will cover the COVID-19 testing
programme, emergency response
and preparedness and surveillance
of infectious diseases, it remains
unclear what arrangements will
be made for PHE’s other functions,
including the Alcohol, Drugs &
Tobacco part of its Health and
NORTHERN IRELAND is to launch a ‘full consultation’
on MUP, health minister Robin Swann has announced.
The decision follows a review of its alcohol and drug
strategy carried out last year. Northern Ireland’s new
substance use strategy, Making life better – preventing
harm and empowering recovery will be issued for
consultation this autumn, with the MUP consultation
to follow within a year. Although the proportion
of adults in Northern Ireland drinking above the
recommended guidelines fell from 26 per cent to
20 per cent between 2010-11 and 2017-18, alcoholrelated
deaths have continued to rise while hospital
admissions increased from just over 9,500 in 2008-09
to more than 11,500 in 2016-17. MUP has already been
introduced in Scotland and Wales.
‘The impact of alcohol misuse is being felt by too
many families and communities across Northern Ireland
on a daily basis,’ said Mr Swann. ‘We need to consider
fully every option available to us to reduce this blight
on our society. I have been closely following the Scottish
Government introduction of minimum unit pricing on
alcohol since 2018 and have been noting with interest
the early positive evaluation reports.’ The announcement
was a ‘positive step forward’, said chair of the Alcohol
Health Alliance, Professor Sir Ian Gilmore.
Wellbeing Directorate.
In a speech to the Policy Exchange
health secretary Matt Hancock said
that PHE’s prevention and health
improvement agenda would be
‘embedded right across government’,
with a consultation to follow. ‘I’ll be
saying more on this over the coming
weeks,’ he stated. DHSC will be
organising an external stakeholder
advisory group to support this and
‘provide expert advice from leading
thinkers in public health, health
care and local government’, the
government says. Interim executive
chair of the new organisation will
be Baroness Dido Harding, while the
interim chief executive officer of PHE
will be Michael Brodie, currently CEO
of NHS Business Services Authority.
More than 80 health
organisations including the Alcohol
Health Alliance, Alcohol Change
UK, Humankind and Turning
Northern Ireland to consult
on minimum pricing
'‘The impact of
alcohol misuse is
being felt by too
many families and
communities.'
ROBIN SWANN
Point have issued a statement in
the BMJ outlining their fears over
PHE’s abolition. ‘As organisations
committed to improving health and
reducing inequalities, we are deeply
concerned that the government’s
plans for the reorganisation of
health protection in the UK pay
insufficient attention to the vital
health improvement and other wider
functions of Public Health England,’
it states. While the establishment of
the stakeholder advisory group was
a ‘welcome step’, reorganisation of
PHE’s health protection functions
risked fragmentation, it warns,
and calls on the government to
reverse public health budget cuts.
‘Organisational change is difficult
and can be damaging at the best
of times – and these are not the
best of times.’ Full statement at
https://smokefreeaction.org.uk/
phehealthimprov/
Interim executive
chair of the new
organisation will
be Baroness Dido
Harding.
Calorie labels
for alcohol?
THE GOVERNMENT will launch a consultation on
plans to provide calorie labelling for alcohol, it has
announced. The consultation forms part of the
government’s obesity strategy designed to ‘beat
coronavirus and protect the NHS’. Around 80 per
cent of people are unaware of the calorie content of
alcoholic drinks, the government says, with alcohol
consumption estimated to account for almost
10 per cent of calorie intake for those who drink.
Around 3.4m people are consuming an additional
day’s worth of calories per week, it adds.
‘When the calorie equivalent of a large glass
of white wine is the same as a slice of pizza or a
cocktail is the equivalent of a cheeseburger, it is
clear why alcohol products should be included
in the government’s plans to tackle the obesity
crisis,’ said chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance,
Professor Sir Ian Gilmore. ‘Alcohol is a factor in more
than 200 health conditions and is the leading risk
factor of death among 15-49 year olds in England.
Labelling on all alcohol products with prominent
health warnings, low risk drinking guidelines and
information on ingredients, nutrition and calories
would help equip the public with the knowledge
they need to make healthier decisions about what
and how much they drink.’
4 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • SEPTEMBER 2020
WWW.DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS.COM