Drink and Drugs News November 2016 | Page 10

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