Alcohol Strategy Consultation Debate

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Department: Home Office

Alcohol Strategy Consultation

Alex Cunningham Excerpts
Wednesday 17th July 2013

(11 years, 4 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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Order. The wider point that the Minister makes about constant shouting is of course true. I have urged colleagues to calm down, and I hope that they will. We are getting towards the break, and a degree of tolerance would be appropriate. I do not think that the Minister has been notably provocative; he has just been giving his answers.

Alex Cunningham Portrait Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)
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According to Balance, a fantastic organisation campaigning on alcohol issues, north-east England has the highest rate of under-18s in specialised alcohol treatment as well as the highest rate of alcohol-related hospital admissions in England. Why does not the Minister agree with every single local authority in the north-east and, it seems, every single health organisation in the country that a minimum unit price for alcohol is overdue and that the Government must not give in to the alcohol lobby in the way they have to the tobacco lobby?