Alcohol: Children’s Health

Lord Rennard Excerpts
Monday 3rd April 2017

(7 years, 7 months ago)

Lords Chamber
Read Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Lord O'Shaughnessy Portrait Lord O’Shaughnessy
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

As my noble friend points out, there are very strict rules around the sale of alcohol to children under the age of 18, and tough punishments exist for anyone who is doing so.

Lord Rennard Portrait Lord Rennard (LD)
- Hansard - -

My Lords, does the Minister accept that we really need better labelling on alcohol products, particularly to assist those seeking to follow a healthier lifestyle and who might be seeking to purchase low-alcohol or no-alcohol products? We need to improve labels to show more clearly the level of alcohol, the number of calories in the product and the amount of sugar in the product to assist those consumers.

Lord O'Shaughnessy Portrait Lord O’Shaughnessy
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

The noble Lord makes a good point. I believe that something like 80% of alcohol for sale is now labelled in some way, whether that is in units or calories and so on. The issue is currently being looked at at a European level—