Report slams trade’s influence on policy

The alcohol industry’s ability to shape alcohol policy nationally and globally needs to be “curtailed” because of a fundamental conflict of interest, according to a recent study.

That was the conclusion drawn by researchers from the University of Newcastle in Australia, London’s King’s College and the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

The study, published in the journal PLoS Medicine, claims that lobbyists within the alcohol trade in Australia and the UK are hampering efforts to curb drinking rates, despite levels of consumption having dropped.

Researchers claim the industry has enjoyed a history of claiming a role in policy-making at a national level “in order to create regulatory environments conducive to corporate interests”.

Such power to shape policy is evidenced, according to the study, by the publication of the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England a decade ago. This strategy was criticised in the report for favouring policies preferred by the alcohol industry and ignoring evidence-based policies.

In 2012 the government alcohol strategy was introduced which included proposals to introduce Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) on alcohol. However this proposal was later withdrawn leaving “little policy in place that can be claimed to embody meaningful strategic intent”, according to researchers. Instead a ban on selling alcohol at “below cost” was introduced in 2014.

The report said: “The resulting mix of approaches—industry self-regulation, targeting binge drinkers with largely punitive responses, public information, and school-based education—has not reduced alcohol harms. In fact, the situation has continued to worsen in England, with rates of alcohol-related hospital admissions approximately doubling within one decade. Other key indicators such as liver disease death rates have also risen markedly, during a period in which they have been falling in many other western European countries.”

Consequently, the report described the past 10 years as a “lost decade” in terms of alcohol policy in England, which contrasted sharply with Scotland where an “evidence-based approach to alcohol policy has developed, with industry influence appropriately balanced.”

It added: “Even so, the alcohol industry has successfully delayed implementation of MUP in Scotland through appeals against legal decisions within the European Union, mimicking the tactics of the tobacco industry.”

Hitting back at claims of inappropriate influence and a lack of action, the Portman Group, responsible for leading responsibility within the drinks trade, noted several major milestones achieved during the last 10 years.

According to the Health and Social Care Information Centre, alcohol consumption among 11-15s has declined 34% between 2004-2013, while hospital admissions due to alcohol in under 18s have declined 34% between 2009-2013.

Drink driving accidents have decreased by 47% between 2003 and 2012, according to the Department for Transport, while violent crime related to alcohol dropped 32% from 2004 to 2012.

In a statement, the Portman Group said: “Official UK government figures show a significant decline in underage drinking, drink driving, alcohol-related crime and binge-drinking over the past decade. This kind of success is achieved by working in partnership with drinks companies to tackle alcohol harms – excluding industry makes no sense. By ignoring the facts, this study fails to acknowledge a very positive cultural shift that is underway in the UK, and the contribution that drinks companies have made by promoting the responsible drinking message to millions of consumers.

“Better ID schemes, more health information, better education and removing units from the market are being delivered voluntarily by industry to improve public health; industry can often go further and faster than regulation could. There are still alcohol harms that must be tackled. They vary across regions and local areas and are linked with a complex range of socio-economic factors, which is why the drinks industry works in partnership with local authorities to support and improve those communities that suffer the most.”

Concluding, researchers said that working in “partnership” with the alcohol industry had “failed to reduce alcohol harm” and that it is “implausible” that it ever could due to an “irreconcilable conflict of interest.”

The UK alcohol industry is currently committed to removing one billion units from the market by 2015, while earlier this year the British Beer and Pub Association confirmed a drop in UK  alcohol consumption of 2.1% in 2013 – the lowest level recorded since 1990.