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Alcohol

My honourable friend the Minister of State, Department of Health (Gillian Merron) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement. We are today laying before Parliament the Government’s response (Cm 7832) to the Health Select Committee report on alcohol, which was published on 8 January 2010. The range of the Health Select Committee’s inquiry and its report recognise the scale and complexity of the challenge we face. Alcohol is a rapidly rising major public health challenge and the Government have been working hard to address it, but there is no single action we can take to change our culture overnight. The Government’s response welcomes the Health Select Committee’s thorough and far-reaching report on alcohol. Whilst we are working to deliver our current strategy, we believe that its recommendations will make an important and lasting contribution to the ways in which the Government and society regard this important issue. The breadth of the committee’s inquiry and the nature of the report have required in-depth consultations across government. In particular, the department has liaised closely and extensively on this response with those other departments called to give oral evidence to the Committee; the Treasury, the Home Office and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Each of those departments has also wished to ensure that the committee received the fullest response where their areas of responsibility and those of the Department of Health coincide. The Government take the health and social harms caused by alcohol seriously and our government strategy on alcohol recognises the challenges we face as a society. Action on alcohol requires close working between sectors and departments, and a careful balance between protecting the rights of the individual and protecting the health of the nation. The comprehensive strategy we have in place tackles these problems in four main areas: to help people make informed decisions (e.g. information and education campaigns and labelling). The committee recognises that information and education policies have a role as part of a comprehensive strategy; to create a healthier environment (e.g. through licensing and enforcement regimes). The committee has welcomed the mandatory code on alcohol retailing and called for its early introduction; to provide advice, support and treatment for people at risk (e.g. providing "brief interventions" in primary care and treatment services for dependent drinkers). We welcome the committee’s view that early detection and intervention in alcohol-related ill health are both effective and cost-effective; and to improve the underpinning delivery system to support those services (e.g. from 2008 the Government created the first ever indicator for primary care trusts to tackle alcohol-related hospital admissions. Our alcohol improvement programme supports PCTs taking action in this area). Current levels of alcohol-related hospital admissions, crime, and deaths are unacceptable. Much more can, and will, be done to turn around the drinking culture in this country. We are currently taking forward action on a mandatory code to tackle the irresponsible promotion of alcohol. New and strengthened campaigns this year will raise public awareness further on the link between drinking too much and poor health, and on the harm that alcohol can do to children. Today’s publication is in the Library and copies are available to honourable Members from the Vote Office.