News Focus
INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH
The relationship between alcohol health campaigners and the drinks
business has long been a fraught one. DDN reports on a recent Westminster
Social Policy Forum event that heard the industry put its side of the case
The 2012 alcohol strategy (DDN, April
2012, page 4) had set the policy direction that
local areas were still following, head of public
services and welfare for cross-party think
tank Demos, Ian Wybron, told last month’s
What now for alcohol policy? event. The
significant exception, of course, was
minimum unit pricing, the strategy’s
commitment to which was later shelved
(DDN, August 2013, page 4).
‘Binge drinking across the UK is in decline
and has been for ten years, particularly
among 16 to 24-year-olds,’ he told delegates.
However, alcohol-related hospital admissions
were increasing, and alcohol-related violent
crime remained a major issue. The strategy
had contained a great deal on local area
partnerships, he said, but the government
appeared to have gone ‘very quiet’ on the
controversial public health responsibility deal
(DDN, 6 December 2010, page 4) – a ‘very
interesting engagement’ between itself, the
industry and the voluntary sector. Other
elements of a changing policy landscape
included the newly revised chief medical
officer guidelines (DDN, February, page 4) and
the potential implications of Brexit – ‘it feels
like there’s an awful lot of uncertainty around
alcohol policy there,’ he said.
According to Demos’s own research, there
were a number of factors that could explain
declining rates of binge drinking among
young people, he told the event. ‘There seem
to have been successes in terms of the health
messaging around alcohol, with lots of young
people taking those messages on board and
moderating their consumption. There’s also a
big role for social media, and the sheer
amount of time that young people spend on
it when perhaps they might otherwise be out
drinking. Working with the statistics is always
difficult, but one thing they do indicate is
that while fewer people are drinking, the
ones who are, are drinking more. So what’s
needed is a much more targeted approach.’
The think tank’s interviewing had found
that young people still did not use units to
calculate or moderate their drinking, however.
‘They don’t really understand them, so we do
10 | drinkanddrugsnews | November 2016
need a new language in terms of consumption
– one that makes sense to young people – as
well as more emphasis on developing
preventative programmes in schools.’
While there had been ‘a lot of effort’
around unit awareness, clearly more was
needed, acknowledged the British Beer and
Pub Association’s director of public affairs,
David Wilson. The binge drinking figures,
however, showed that some policy measures
were working, he said. ‘So we need to learn
what works and do more of it. The more we
can do together – as policy makers and
industry – the more effective we can become,
rather than having all our debates pitched as
stand-offs between the two.’
The industry would continue to develop,
and promote, greater choice in areas such as
lower-strength products, he said, but this had
to be combined with more government help
in terms of things like tax policy and
advertising rules. ‘We believe that policy –
fiscal and otherwise – should encourage and
promote low-strength products,’ he said, while
one possible opportunity in terms of Brexit
was the chance it offered to review beer, wine
Around 70
per cent of
convenience
store
retailers have
an ageverification
scheme like
‘Challenge
25’ in place.
and cider duties, which are calculated
according to alcohol by volume (ABV).
In terms of the retailer role in helping to
reduce harm, alcohol remained an ‘incredibly
important’ category for shopkeepers, said
public affairs executive at the Association of
Convenience Stores, Julie Byers. ‘Our
members have a huge responsibility when it
comes to things like ensuring there are no
under-age sales.’
Around 70 per cent of convenience store
retailers had an age-verification scheme like
‘Challenge 25’ in place, with more than a
quarter refusing under-age sales around ten
times a week – something that was not
always easy for staff working alone in the
shop and facing aggression. Her organisation
also distributed information to raise
awareness of things like proxy purchases –
when children per