22 November 2017: AHA members, MPs, doctors, religious leaders and researchers are among those who have signed a letter calling on the Chancellor to raise the duty on cheap, high-strength cider in the Autumn budget.
The letter is published in the Daily Mirror today, and the full text and list of signatories is below.
—
Dear Sir
We are calling on the Government to raise duty on cheap, high-strength cider in the budget to help protect children and other vulnerable people.
Due to loopholes in the tax system, three litre plastic bottles of strong ‘white’ cider are being sold for as little as £3.59. That means our children are able to get hold of the equivalent of 22 shots of vodka for pocket money prices.
This is a drink of choice for heavy drinkers and the homeless, and too many of our children have access to it. Megan Craig Wilkinson, the 16-year-old daughter of one of the people signing this letter, died on New Year’s Day 2014 after drinking half a bottle of cheap, strong cider. You featured her tragic story in the pages of this newspaper.
Raising the price of these drinks would reduce alcohol-related death and illness and ease the burden on the health service. It would also boost the economy by reducing the number of working life years lost due to alcohol and at the same time would leave 80 per cent of mainstream ciders unaffected.
A poll from the Alcohol Health Alliance showed 66 per cent of people would support an increase in tax on white cider, so we call on the Chancellor to act now, to protect our children and the most vulnerable.
Yours sincerely
Joanne Good
Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, Chair, Alcohol Health Alliance
Colin Shevills, Director, Balance, the North East Alcohol Office
Katherine Brown, Chief Executive, Institute of Alcohol Studies
Dr Sarah Wollaston MP
Fiona Bruce MP, Chair of the APPG on Alcohol Harm
Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe
Baroness Finlay of Llandaff
Alex Cunningham MP
Paul Flynn MP
Mary Glindon MP
Steve Double MP
Martyn Day MP
Ronnie Campbell MP
Norman Lamb MP
Lord Ramsbotham
Liam Byrne MP
Dr Paul Williams MP
Dr Richard Piper, Chief Executive, Alcohol Research UK/Alcohol Concern
Jeremy Swain, Chief Executive, Thames Reach
Ron Hogg, Police, Crime and Victims’ Commissioner for Durham
Dame Vera Baird QC, Police & Crime Commissioner for Northumbria
Barry Coppinger, Police and Crime Commissioner for Cleveland
Lieut-Colonel David E. Kelly, Secretary for Communications, The Salvation Army
Dr Liam Brennan, President of the Royal College of Anaesthetists
Dr Dominique Florin, Medical Director, Medical Council on Alcohol
Dr Peter Rice, Chair, Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems
Dr Eric Carlin, Director, Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems
Professor Paul Lincoln, CEO UK Health Forum
Professor Dame Parveen Kumar, BMA board of science chair
Alison Douglas, Chief Executive, Alcohol Focus Scotland
Professor Colin Drummond, Addictions Faculty, Royal College of Psychiatrists
Dr Adrian Boyle, Royal College of Emergency Medicine
Dr Andrew Furber, President, Association of Directors of Public Health
Professor Linda Bauld, UK Centre for Tobacco & Alcohol Studies
Professor Jane Dacre, President, Royal College of Physicians
Professor Nick Sheron, Head of Clinical Hepatology, University of Southampton
Terry Martin, Alcohelp
Nigel Bongard, Alcohelp
Shirley Cramer CBE, Chief Executive, Royal Society for Public Health
Justina Murray, Chief Executive, Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs
Janet Davies, General Secretary, Royal College of Nursing
Dr Kieran Moriarty, British Society of Gastroenterology
Caroline Moye, Head of World Cancer Research Fund UK
Prof John Ashton, Faculty of Public Health
Dr Helen Toal, Consultant Psychiatrist in Addictions, Honorary Lecturer, Queens University Belfast
Professor Robin Touquet, Emeritus Professor of Emergency Medicine, Imperial College London & St Mary’s Hospital Paddington
Professor Matthew Cramp, President, British Association for the Study of the Liver
Professor Jonathan Shepherd, Director, Violence Research Group, University of Cardiff
Professor Frank Murray, Chair, Alcohol Health Alliance Ireland
Dr Christopher Record, Consultant Hepatologist, Newcastle Upon Tyne
John Jolly, Chief Executive Officer, Blenheim CDP
Professor Roger Williams, CBE, Director, Institute of Hepatology London
Vivienne Evans OBE, Chief Executive, Adfam
Professor David Galloway, President, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow
Revd Loraine Mellor, President of the Methodist Conference
Diane Goslar