Commons report slams government’s drink policy
January 8, 2010
The House of Commons Health Committee has published a report that calls for stricter controls on alcohol. The cross party report has accused the government of being too close to drinks firms and supermarket chains and that this relationship is distorting their policies in regards to tackling the country’s alcohol problems. The report condemns the governments move to allow 24-hour drinking saying that it was naïve to think that this would ever lead to the U.K. adopting a continental café culture. It has also said that an increase in the price of alcohol to a minimum of 50 pence per unit would save lives rather than hit the wallets of the moderate drinker. The report claims that the new pricing would only really affect high strength lagers and ciders and would encourage people to switch to weaker beers and ciders. It also called for more information to be supplied on the labels of alcoholic beverages such as weekly limits and the number of units of alcohol contained in each drink.
The report has asked the government to pay less attention to retailers and the drinks industry and more attention to the President of the Royal College of Physicians and the Chief Medical Officer. Head of science and ethics at the British Medical Association, Vivienne Nathanson has said that she agrees with the committee that urgent steps should be taken to end the relationship between the government and the drinks industry so that proper action can be taken to fight the country’s alcohol misuse problems.
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