The Government’s long-awaited NHS 10-Year Plan has been published today – but leading public health experts have slammed it for failing to include key policies to reduce alcohol harm, despite record-high levels of alcohol-related illness and death contributing to NHS pressures.
The AHA has expressed deep concern that the majority of evidence-based policies to tackle alcohol harm did not make it into the final plan.
Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, Chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance and liver specialist, said:
“The NHS 10-Year Plan was a unique opportunity to move from simply treating illness to genuinely preventing it – to build a healthier nation and ease pressure on our overstretched health service. Alcohol harm, one of the UK’s biggest preventable killers, was rightly identified as a key area for action. For a moment, it looked as though the government might finally be ready to confront the toll alcohol takes on our society. Instead, that opportunity has been squandered.
Alcohol deaths are at record highs, and the NHS is at breaking point. It is staggering, then, that the most evidence-based policies to reduce alcohol harm have been stripped from the final plan.
This is not just a missed opportunity – it is a dereliction of duty.
Most notably, Minimum Unit Pricing – a measure proven to reduce alcohol deaths and cut health inequalities – was reportedly included in earlier drafts but has now been omitted. If true, this is a grave mistake.”
Alcohol is the leading risk factor for death, ill health and disability among 15–49-year-olds in the UK, and costs the NHS in England an estimated £3.5 billion every year. Public health experts and medical professionals have long warned that tackling alcohol harm must be a cornerstone of any meaningful plan to reduce pressures on the health service.
Effective, evidence-based policies such as minimum unit pricing, restricting alcohol marketing, and reducing availability were reportedly considered in the plan’s development. The removal of these measures has raised questions over the influence of the alcohol industry in shaping public health policy.
Prof Sir Ian Gilmore, continued:
“The commitment to improve alcohol labelling is a welcome, long-overdue step towards greater transparency for consumers. However, there is little evidence that the growth of the alcohol-free and low-alcohol sector will reduce population-level alcohol consumption. What we do know is that this benefits alcohol industry profits. In the face of rising harm, these limited measures represent a wholly inadequate response to the scale of the problem.
We are in the midst of a national crisis: alcohol-specific deaths have risen by 42% in recent years – an increase that would not be tolerated if it were any other health condition. The hardest hit are people in our most deprived communities – the very people a prevention-first strategy should be protecting. The removal of effective, evidence-based measures suggests the government has once again bowed to the cries of foul from industry, rather than delivering the transformative policies needed to save lives.
A serious prevention agenda cannot be built on half-measures and appeasement. This country needs the leadership it was promised – leadership that puts public health before profit. A national alcohol strategy, free from industry interference and with policies that address alcohol’s price, availability and marketing together is urgently needed. Without it, the government will be back here in another decade, with a still-broken NHS and thousands more unnecessary deaths.”
The AHA is now calling on the Government to urgently revisit its approach and introduce a national alcohol strategy.
ENDS.