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Health lobbyists dismiss UK drinking survey

Health campaigners claim official drinks surveys "grossly" underestimate how much wine the nation is drinking on a weekly basis.

A report from the Centre for Public Health for charity Alcohol Concern shows the nation is drinking around 44 million bottles a week. This means just over one bottle per adult drinker per week is unaccounted for between survey data and tax sales data.

The General Household Survey suggests an average UK adult consumes 13.5 units per week. This figure includes those who abstain from drinking, suggesting average consumption for adult drinkers is approximately 15.7 units per week - around 345 million litres of pure alcohol each year across the population.

But taxation data shows 570 million litres of pure alcohol was taxed in the year 2007/2008. This equates weekly to 22 units per adult or around 26 units per drinking adult.

The difference between survey and sales data of 225 million litres per year is equivalent to 430 million units per week. 

Don Shenker, Alcohol Concern chief executive said: "If we underestimate our drinking levels, then we're underestimating the amount of harm we can expect to happen to our families, communities and wider society - as well as how much further we need to go to curb our excessive consumption.

"Poor survey intelligence can result in misinformed policy. Any future government must get to grips with measuring the true scale and nature of this problem if it is to make a difference to reduce alcohol harms. We want to see minimum pricing and further regulation."

The Wine and Spirit Trade Association chief executive Jeremy Beadles said: "We have always worked from official Treasury clearance data rather than self-reported survey data, both of which show that overall alcohol consumption has been falling since 2004.  

"The New Year will see industry, government and Drinkaware continuing to work on major initiatives to communicate the sensible drinking message to consumers.  We hope that Alcohol Concern will play its part by focusing more of its attention on the provision of front line services."