Doctors slam government for being too close to alcohol industry

Senior doctors have added weight to calls for a rise in alcohol tax in next month's Budget - and slammed the government for working too closely with the alcohol industry.

A 90-page report from the BMA (British Medical Association) has made a series of hard-hitting recommendations in a bid to tackle alcohol-related issues.

These include inflation-busting alcohol tax rises, proportionate to the amount of alcohol present; a reduction in licensing hours for on and off-trade premises; and laws to ban irresponsible promotions and a cut in the legal drink-drive limit to 50mg/100ml.

During a press conference, Dr Vivian Nathanson, the BMA's head of science and ethics, dismissed the idea that higher taxes would punish the majority of drinkers. "We have a public health emergency and people need to be prepared to look at an increase in price," she said.

Nathanson described the alcohol industry as a "very effective lobbyist" and called for voluntary codes of practice to be "dumped", claiming they should be replaced with legislation.

Although no figure was put on the amount tax should be increased, it was claimed a 10 per increase in excise duty would prevent 29 per cent of male and 27 per cent of female alcohol-related deaths.

Referring to alcohol problems, Dr Hamish Meldrum, the BMA's chairman said: "Were it any other illness, we would be talking about an epidemic."

On Tesco's call today for action on cut-price alcohol deals, Meldrum said the move by the supermarket was "slightly disingenuous". But he added: "It's very helpful they have made the comments they have."

Despite acknowledgement that alcohol presented a different challenge to health lobbyists, compared to smoking, Nathanson said: "We need to see what worked on tobacco and mimic that."

Last year, a group of 24 health bodies launched the Alcohol Health Alliance, which is calling for a 10 per cent increase on alcohol tax.

However, the pub and drinks industry is strongly opposed to the idea of higher taxes, pointing to the fact that overall consumption is falling and evidence from other countries show increasing taxes do not work in reducing problems.