Legal advice: Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy

At the core of the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy is the desire to change the attitude that in order to have a good night out you need to be drunk. Our legal team explains.

By David Clifton of thePublican.com's team of legal experts from London solicitors Joelson Wilson.​

On March 15 2004 the Prime Minister's strategy unit unveiled the national Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy document, upon which it had been working since July 2002.

The aim of the strategy is to prevent any further increase in alcohol-related harm in England. The principal harms identified are: crime and anti-social behaviour, loss of productivity and profitability, harm to health and harms to family and society.

The strategy lays responsibility with both the government and the drinks industry and sets out a series of measures designed to reduce harm caused by alcohol misuse:

• to improve education and communication, with a view to achieving a long-term change in attitude to irresponsible drinking
• to improve health and treatment services, with measures aimed at identifying and treating alcohol problems
• to combat alcohol-related crime and disorder, with measures to address problems experienced by towns and city centres as a result of alcohol misuse at weekends
• to build on the existing good practices already initiated by some within the alcohol industry.

This is the first time the government has intervened to prevent, minimise and manage alcohol-related harms. The government has also launched a consultation into the nation's health entitled Choosing Health, which will lead to a White Paper to develop issues and questions about alcohol and public health policy.

The strategy acknowledges the important economic and social role alcohol plays. It outlines the cost of the nation's alcoholic over-indulgence, stating that the cost of alcohol misuse to the health service is £1.7bn per annum, while the cost in terms of crime and disorder, injuries and illness and lost productivity in the workplace is assessed at £20bn a year.

Two important drinking patterns - binge-drinking and chronic drinking - are identified. Binge-drinkers, who "drink to get drunk", are identified as likely to be under 25 and more likely to be men "although women's drinking has been rising fast over the last 10 years".

Chronic drinkers are more likely to be aged over 30 and around two-thirds are men.

Next week I will deal with the headline-catching measures set out within the strategy to combat alcohol-related crime and disorder in towns and cities at night. In particular I will look at the proposed voluntary code of good practice which pubs would be expected to comply with to minimise and prevent harm from alcohol misuse, and the proposed financial contribution by pubs and other alcohol retailers at local level to tackle the consequences of alcohol misuse.

The strategy is aiming to change the perceived attitude that in order to have a good night out, it is necessary to get drunk. The government appears to be setting itself the task, in order to encourage individuals to act responsibly, of ensuring that they understand the potential risks of irresponsible drinking with a view to bringing about a long-term change in public attitude.

The strategy identifies that the drinks industry needs to control advertising to guarantee that irresponsible drinking is not seen to be either condoned or encouraged.We can expect the following:

• public information and government messages with a revised sensible drinking guideline (the current recommended daily intake for women is two to three units and for men three to four units)
• health warnings on alcohol products and in alcohol outlets
• more alcohol education in schools
• alcohol in the workplace policies (in view of the fact that the strategy unit has calculated that alcohol misuse leads to loss of productivity costing up to £6.4bn a year, with up to 17 million working days lost through alcohol-related absence)
• Ofcom will oversee a fundamental review of the rules relating to alcohol advertising and their enforcement.

Alongside this, the government will work with alcohol producers at a national level to increase corporate social responsibility and will set up a three-part scheme to reduce harm through:

• promotion of good practice in product development, branding, advertising and packaging - for example agreement not to manufacture irresponsibly, conforming to advertising codes, sensible drinking message on bottles
• donation to an independent fund - financed on a basis agreed between the industry and government, to pay for national projects to reduce alcohol-related harm
• promotion of good practice down the supply chain - for example, assistance in training and serving practices or discounts to retailers signing up to the retail accreditation scheme proposed by the strategy.

In his foreword to the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy, the Prime Minister says that it will "bring benefits to us all in the form of a healthier and happier relationship with alcohol". Cheers!