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Consumption Controversies Alcohol Policies in the UK

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Consumption Controversies Alcohol Policies in the UK Negative impacts. High profile. Tabloid headlines. Binge drinking culture. Death rate over the last 25 years trebled to 9,000 per annum. Drinking is big business. Consumption of alcohol. Major political issue. Twin policy objectives. Protecting public health. UrbaCn roegnenserautimon. pNigthito-timne cecoonnomtyr. oSigvnieficrasnticeons tributory to violent crime. Factor in half of all domestic violence's. Cost health service estimated £2bn each year. TackAlingltcheoprhoboleml .pIncorelaiscingitehespricne oftahlcoeholU. CKlamping down on 24 hour drinking. Reducing associated public disorder. Scotland annual consumption higher than in England and Wales. Binge drinking. Consumption trends decreasing for younger age groups. Few people recognise own consumption as harmful.Treatment strategies. Regional difference in levels of alcohol consumption. Official statistics underreporting what is happening. Hidden domestic settings. Identify problem regions. Controversial media attention. Extending licensing hours. Observing historical patterns of drinking. Household disposable income increasing. Alcohol more affordable today. Moral panic surrounding alcohol related violence. Continental style drinking. More off-licences. Patterns of drinking are changing. Drinking later in the evening. Drinking more frequently. De-stress’ drinkers. 1.8 million more people now drinking at home. Increasing number of off-licences. Sessional drinking is something innately and distinctly British. Episodic heavy alcohol consumption. Developing increased alcohol dependency. Negative health consequences. Types of alcohol being consumed vary. Problem of drinking in population. Negative impacts. High profile. Tabloid headlines. Binge drinking culture. Death rate over the last 25 years trebled to 9,000 per annum. Drinking is big business. Consumption of alcohol. Major political issue. Twin policy objectives. Protecting public health. Urban regeneration. Night-time economy. Significant contributory to violent crime. Factor in half of all domestic violence's. Cost health service estimated £2bn each year. Tackling the problem. Increasing the price of alcohol. Clamping down on 24 hour drinking. Reducing associated public disorder. Scotland annual consumption higher than in England and Wales. Binge drinking. Consumption trends decreasing for younger age groups. Few people recognise own consumption as harmful.Treatment strategies. Regional difference in levels of alcohol consumption. Official statistics underreporting what is happening. Hidden domestic settings. Identify problem regions. Controversial media attention. Extending licensing hours. Observing historical patterns of drinking. Household disposable income increasing. Alcohol more affordable today. Moral panic surrounding alcohol related violence. Continental style drinking. More off-licences. Patterns of drinking are changing. Drinking later in the evening. Drinking more frequently. De-stress’ drinkers. 1.8 million more people now drinking at home. Increasing number of off-licences. Sessional drinking is something innately and distinctly British. Episodic heavy alcohol consumption. Developing increased alcohol dependency. Negative health consequences. Types of alcohol being consumed vary. Problem of drinking in population. Negative impacts. High profile. Tabloid headlines. Binge drinking culture. Death rate over the last 25 years trebled to 9,000 per annum. Drinking is big business. Consumption of Patterns of drinking are changing. Drinking later in the evening. Drinking more frequently. Also in this series Arsenic pollution A global problem W www.rgs.org/arsenic UK Migration controversies A simple guide W www.rgs.org/migration Index Introduction 1 Controversy 1 The UK has a drink problem 3 Controversy 2 The biggest bingers are in Scotland and the North East 5 Controversy 3 Problem drinking is a new phenomenon 7 Controversy 4 Has our night-time economy been revitalised by drinking (or are our towns and cities becoming no-go zones) 9 Controversy 5 A continental drinking culture is better 11 Controversy 6 It is ‘safer‘ to drink at home 13 Controversy 7 Children should not drink alcohol 15 Controversy 8 Units are not useful as a tool to measure levels of drinking 17 Controversy 9 Too much focus is given to treating the effects of alcohol rather than reducing consumption 19 Controversy 10 Saving the local British pub is more important than reducing drinking 21 Sources 23 Introduction Drinking alcohol, and associated negative Strategy for England set out the impacts, has probably never had such a government’s strategy for tackling high profile within public and policy the harms and costs of alcohol misuse debates. Tabloid headlines scream in England. Delivery has been framed outrage on a frequent basis about the ills around Government targets which aim of Britain’s ‘binge drinking’ culture. Some to reduce harms caused by alcohol to: estimates suggest 100,000 people in the • the community as a result of associated UK could die over the next decade directly crime, disorder, and anti-social behaviour because of their drinking, and that the (alcohol is also a significant contributory death rate over the last 25 years has factor to violent crime: 44% of victims of trebled to nearly 9,000 per annum. Yet violence in England and Wales believed drinking is big business. Some estimates their attacker was under its influence. suggest it is worth around £40bn every Alcohol is also thought to be a factor in at year to the economy. least half of all domestic violence Consumption of alcohol emerged as a incidents). major political issue in the early 2000s. • the health and well-being of those who Since then the government has steered drink excessively (the total cost to the a careful course between twin policy health service has been estimated by objectives of protecting public health some to be more than £2bn each year); and pursuing urban regeneration through and development, achievement and promotion of the night-time economy. wellbeing of young people and families. In 2004 the Alcohol Harm Reduction 1 Policies cut across departments This briefing paper from the Royal including the department of Culture Geographical Society (with IBG) presents Media and Sport who deal with an overview of research relating to the licensing and were responsible for the current debate, presenting evidence Licensing Act of 2005, Home Office, relating to a number of controversial Communities and Local Government, questions. This paper sets out to separate and the Department of Health. the facts from fiction in these debates, with evidence presented against a series The lead up to the 2010 United Kingdom of controversial questions and debates, General Election, including the campaign, from whether the UK actually does have saw political parties of all colours a ‘drinking problem’ right through to announcing a stream of measures to assessing the positive role that the tackle what is framed as ‘the problem’. British pub still plays in the economy, These strategies were mainly associated communities and people’s lives. with increasing the price of alcohol, clamping down on so-called ‘24-hour drinking’ and reducing associated public disorder. The new government has indicated it will be looking to implement this approach. 2 Controversy 1 The UK has a drink problem What does the evidence say? roughly 25% higher than in England and Wales [4]. The Department of Health’s national health survey provides an annual picture The official definition of ‘binge drinking’ of the volume and way in which alcohol is is a day when a man drinks more than 8 consumed within England and how this is units of alcohol, and a woman more than changing. One ‘unit’ of alcohol is officially 6 [5]. Of adults who drink alcohol, just under defined as 8mg (or 10ml) of pure alcohol one third (29%) of men and less than [1] which translates roughly into quantitie s 1 in 8 (15%) of women can be classified of particular drinks: i.e. one glass of wine as ‘bingers’ [1]. (175ml) equates approximately to two units Women exceed ‘sensible’ drinking levels of alcohol [2]. if they drink half a bottle (375ml) of 12% The most recent statistics show that more alcohol strength wine and are binge than half of men (62%) and two-thirds of drinking if they drink more than four (125ml) women (71%) drink less than the glasses. Men also exceed sensible limits Government’s ‘recommended daily if they drink half a bottle of wine and are maximum units’ of alcohol on their binge drinking if they consume a whole heaviest drinking day (4 units of alcohol bottle [6]. Similarly, 28% of men and 18% for men, and 3 for women), with many of women drink more each week than the abstaining from drinking alcohol at all [1]. Department of Health’s suggested weekly Figures for Scotland are similar: 58% of limits of 21 and 14 units per week men and 69% of women [3], but with respectively [1]. overall annual levels of consumption 3 Per-capita consumption of alcohol in alcohol strengths in recent years, the UK rose 19% between 1980 and particularly in wine. National survey data 2007. This compares with a 13% decline was updated in 2006 to account for amongst all Organization for Economic these changes which had the dramatic Cooperation and Development (OECD) effect of effectively doubling the proportion countries: average consumption has of women classified as binge drinkers fallen about 17% in the United States, overnight [8]. 24% in Canada, 30% in Germany and In surveys of drinking behaviour, very 33% in France. European countries
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