Cider Industry ‘Not Convinced’ By Proposals to Tackle Alcohol Misuse

The UK cider industry has now submitted its response to the government’s consultation paper on a 'New Code of Practice for Alcohol Retailers.' 

The paper – explained in the story below 'Cider Industry to take Active Role in Alcohol Misuse Consultations' – is concerned with the promotion and sale of alcoholic beverages and the industry has pledged its full participation and involvement in the discussions to come. 

'NACM appreciates and shares the Government’s ambition to tackle alcohol harm, disorder and misuse and believes that Government should take appropriate measures to address this issue and introduce policies that will contribute to the significant reduction in the harm which arises from misuse,' said NACM Policy Adviser, Bob Price 

'But we are not convinced that the measures proposed in the Code will have a significant impact in tackling alcohol misuse and share the view of others in the alcoholic drinks industry, that the Government has not presented convincing evidence that these measures will have the required impact,' he said.  

'A review of published reports in the public domain produced by the UK Government and other bodies, quite clearly demonstrates that no one alcoholic drink is responsible for alcohol misuse – misuse is caused by certain drinkers who clearly misuse alcohol and by some under 18s who are clearly breaking the law. This therefore is not a problem about problem drinks but about problem drinkers.'

The industry believes that for the Government to succeed in bringing about a cultural change in how alcohol is consumed by the irresponsible minority then, as an urgent priority, it needs to identify and deal with the real causes of alcohol misuse (and indeed substance abuse in general).  

'It is misplaced to focus on the availability and affordability (price and promotion) of alcohol as the sole and root cause of misuse,' said Bob.  

'The real drivers behind harmful drinking, binge drinking behaviour and under 18s alcohol misuse tend to get overlooked as a consequence. This means adopting or calling for a combination of long-term measures such as improving education, awareness campaigns, etc and short-term measures which can also be effective such as enforcing the legislation that already exists.' 

NACM acknowledges that Government has committed resources to initiatives in this area as indeed has industry. NACM is a supporter of the Portman Group, Drinkaware Trust and of "Project 10" Campaign for Smarter Drinking, a £100m (over five years) industry education initiative. 

He said that while not under-estimating the scale and seriousness of alcohol misuse, NACM's members believe that any strategy must recognise that the vast majority of the population drink responsibly and that the majority of businesses behave in a responsible manner.   

'What is needed are targeted policies designed to tackle the minority with alcohol problems, those responsible for disorder and the minority of rogue businesses in the industry that do not comply with the law,' he said. 

'The real effect of the proposed Code will do more to increase bureaucracy and cost for industry and enforcement agencies and do little to tackle binge drinking or crime and disorder.' 

A copy of the complete NACM response can be viewed here. September 4, 2009

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