Alcohol: Pricing Debate

Full Debate: Read Full Debate
Department: Home Office

Alcohol: Pricing

Baroness Greengross Excerpts
Monday 29th October 2012

(12 years, 1 month ago)

Lords Chamber
Read Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Baroness Greengross Portrait Baroness Greengross
- Hansard - -

My Lords, in acknowledging that there is a huge problem regarding older people and their intake of alcohol, will the Minister assure us that if the Government go through with these plans, the treatment that older people need to give up their habit will be at the same level as that for younger people with alcohol-related conditions, particularly given the change in the law since the beginning of October, which bans discrimination on the ground of age?

Lord Taylor of Holbeach Portrait Lord Taylor of Holbeach
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

The noble Baroness raises an interesting question, which arose in the programme: a lot of people drink because they are lonely. The Government’s alcohol strategy is part of a broader strategy that needs to take into account the social support that is given to older people and indeed, if I may also say so, the rehabilitation of people who have had a lifetime of drinking to excess.