Alcohol

Baroness Finlay of Llandaff Excerpts

Thursday 2nd February 2012 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Finlay of Llandaff]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they plan to reduce alcohol harm.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Earl Howe)]

My Lords, we will set out the Government’s approach to tackling alcohol-related harm in the forthcoming alcohol strategy. It will address the full range of harm from alcohol, both health and social impacts, and will describe the respective future roles of central and local government, the third sector, other agencies and people.

[Baroness Finlay of Llandaff]

Today’s British Liver Trust report shows that 28 per cent of deaths in 16 to 24 year-olds and almost 9,000 deaths a year in this country are alcohol-related. Do the Government recognise that there is now a need for social strategies that look at issues such as minimum pricing and licensing controls of home delivery services that provide night-time party top-ups when parties have run out of alcohol and people are already drunk, as well as criminal justice controls so that breathalysers can be used compulsorily, given that 45 per cent of violent crime and 37 per cent of domestic violence are alcohol-related?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, the Government fully recognise the adverse effects on society of alcohol misuse and the devastating consequences that it can bring to individuals. That is why we feel it is so important to issue the alcohol strategy that I mentioned in my initial Answer. I understand that there are no plans in government to widen the use of breathalysers, but we are clear that irresponsible sales of alcohol need to be controlled, and that area will be covered in the strategy. On the noble Baroness’s particular question on pricing, we recognise that the irresponsible sale of alcohol at a loss to gain wider trade can lead to binge drinking. That is clearly undesirable for all sorts of reasons. We are committed to ending the sale of heavily discounted alcohol, and that will send a message to retailers and, indeed, the public that we take the issue very seriously.