Baroness Cumberlege
Main Page: Baroness Cumberlege (Conservative - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Cumberlege's debates with the Leader of the House
(9 years, 10 months ago)
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Baroness Jolly
The noble Lord is right. Alcohol consumption has fallen, as has the number of alcohol-related deaths, due to the increase in taxation on alcohol by this Government and possibly previous Governments. Nevertheless, harmful effects such as liver disease, as well as social impacts linked to alcohol, such as crime and domestic violence, remain much too high.
Baroness Cumberlege (Con)
Does my noble friend agree that there is great merit in keeping the pubs open and that single men who are lonely and depressed are very often welcomed into pubs? Their spirits are raised—in all senses of the word—and they then are not a burden on the National Health Service.
Baroness Jolly
I am not quite sure. I can tell noble Lords about licensing. We are actively working with Public Health England on the practicalities of how health-related objectives for the licensing of premises selling alcohol would work at a local level.