What are we calling for?
The Alcohol Health Alliance UK (AHA) promotes policies for reducing the harm caused by alcohol as set out in Health First: An evidence-based alcohol strategy for the UK.
With 70 people dying from alcohol-related causes every day in the UK, the AHA’s mission to tackle alcohol harm has never been more important.
The top ten policy recommendations from the AHA are:
- A minimum price per unit of alcohol should be introduced for all alcohol sales, together with a mechanism to regularly review and revise this price.
- At least one-third of every alcohol product label should be given over to an evidence-based health warning specified by an independent regulatory body.
- The sale of alcohol in shops should be restricted to specific times of the day and designated areas. No alcohol promotion should occur outside these areas.
- The tax on every alcohol product should be proportionate to the volume of alcohol it contains. In order to incentivise the development and sale of lower strength products, the rate of taxation should increase with product strength.
- Licensing legislation should be comprehensively reviewed. Licensing authorities must be empowered to tackle alcohol-related harm by controlling the total availability of alcohol in their jurisdiction.
- All alcohol advertising and sponsorship should be prohibited. In the short-term, alcohol advertising should only be permitted in newspapers and other adult press. Its content should be limited to factual information about brand, provenance and product strength.
- An independent body should be established to regulate alcohol promotion, including product and packaging design, in the interests of public health and community safety.
- The legal limit for blood alcohol concentration for drivers should be reduced to 50 mg/100 ml.
- All health and social care professionals should be trained to routinely provide early identification and brief alcohol advice to their clients.
- People who need support for alcohol problems should be routinely referred to specialist alcohol services for comprehensive assessment and appropriate treatment.