Medics condemn "inconsequential" action on drinks prices

Published: 21 February, 2011

Medics have warned that government plans to ban below-cost sales of alcohol will have no effect on the nation's health.

An article in The Lancet warns that, without tougher action to clamp down on binge drinking, alcohol could claim 250,000 lives a year in England and Wales by 2019.

Prof Sir Ian Gilmore, a former president of the Royal College of Physicians and a founder of the Alcohol Health Alliance, is one of the report's authors.

The article points out that Britain has a "particular problem" with liver death rates, which is says have more than doubled to 11.4 per 100,000 population since 1986.

The report says: "The regulation of population-level alcohol consumption is a duty of responsible Government."

Although the article applauds the government's policy of increasing alcohol duty by 2% above inflation, it warns that a proposed ban on drinks sales below the combined cost of duty and VAT is "inconsequential".

Recent research has shown that the policy would have no effect on any of the most recent deep discount offers on leading drinks brands.

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