Alcohol Alert - September 2021

Hello and welcome to the Alcohol Alert, brought to you by The Institute of Alcohol Studies.

In this edition:

* Study finds alcohol ads appeared every 12 seconds in England vs. Scotland 2020 Six Nations match and responsible drinking messages were barely visible 🎵 Podcast feature 🎵

* The Scottish Government launches its 2021-2022 Programme for Government

* Serious injuries from drink-driving road traffic accidents are at their highest point since 2008

* YouGov survey shows public support for restricting alcohol advertising

* Study shows doubling alcohol taxes could save 4,850 Europeans from cancer deaths each year

* Alcohol Change UK publishes a report on how to use legal powers to safeguard vulnerable dependent drinkers

* Nicola Sturgeon calls for perseverance and determination against industry opposition to pricing policies

* Public Health England publishes review on gambling-related harms

* Lords debated the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

We hope you enjoy our roundup of stories below: please feel free to share. Thank you.

Upcoming events

The Global Alcohol Policy Alliance is running a 3-day virtual event in place of their annual conference, from 12-14 October 2021.

Each day there will be a session with a key-note speaker, followed by a session with comments from a panel of regional representatives and Q&As.

The event will cover:

See more information and register for the event here.

This month’s IAS blogs

Alcohol Toolkit Study: quarterly update

The Alcohol Toolkit Study is run by University College London and tracks the latest trends in alcohol consumption in England on a quarterly basis. We will include the recent data in our Alert each quarter when it is released.

For more information and data graphs please visit their website here.

Prevalence of increasing and higher risk drinking (AUDIT)

Increasing and higher risk drinking defined as those scoring >7 AUDIT. A-C1: Professional to clerical occupation C2-E: Manual occupation

Currently trying to restrict consumption

A-C1: Professional to clerical occupation C2-E: Manual occupation; Question: Are you currently trying to restrict your alcohol consumption e.g. by drinking less, choosing lower strength alcohol or using smaller glasses? Are you currently trying to restrict your alcohol consumption e.g. by drinking less, choosing lower strength alcohol or using smaller glasses?

Triggers for past-year attempts to cut down

Question: Which of the following, if any, do you think contributed to you making the most recent attempt to restrict your alcohol consumption?

Study finds alcohol ads appeared every 12 seconds in England vs. Scotland 2020 Six Nations match

A new study highlights the prevalence of alcohol advertising in the Guinness Six Nations Rugby Championship and subsequent risk to children, with adverts appearing hundreds of times throughout matches.

Researchers at the University of Stirling found 961 references in the Scotland vs. England match and 754 in the Ireland vs. Wales match: every 12 and 15 seconds respectively.

On Thursday 30th September we held a webinar to launch the findings of the study and to discuss policy implications across different countries of the UK. The research was sponsored by IAS, Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) and Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI).

During the presentation study author Dr Richard Purves showed that ‘responsible drinking’ messages were only visible in 0.4% of the alcohol references during the England vs. Scotland match.

Despite this, the Portman Group – the alcohol industry’s social responsibility body – responded that “socially responsible sponsorship is needed more than ever before”, going on to say that banning alcohol ads in sport would have no “tangible effect on public health”.

Previous research has shown that children exposed to alcohol advertising are more likely to start drinking at a younger age, and drink more heavily in later life. This new study adds to a wealth of information showing the failings of alcohol marketing regulations, particularly in sport.

As part of Portman’s regulatory code, “drinks companies must use their reasonable endeavours…to ensure that at least 75% [of the audience] are aged over 18”. Dr Katherine Severi, Chief Executive of the Institute of Alcohol Studies argues that:

“This is slightly meaningless posturing when the Six Nations has an audience of 125 million. Under these rules it is permitted for over 30 million children to see and be influenced by alcohol ads.”

In the presentation Dr Purves and co-author Dr Nathan Critchlow discussed Ireland’s impending alcohol marketing restrictions, which are set to come in in November 2021, asking “how Ireland’s impending restrictions may influence alcohol marketing practice in future iterations of the tournament?”.

They spoke about how the alcohol industry has worked to circumvent marketing restrictions in France with so-called ‘alibi marketing’: using features that are linked to the brand without explicitly referring to it – a practice that has been used by tobacco companies in sport too. In France, the Six Nations’ lead sponsor, Guinness, uses the term ‘Greatness’ instead – with the same branding.

The study found that this occurs in France matches despite alibi marketing appearing to be against the French regulations, which prohibit “advertising [that] by its design, use of a name, trademark, advertising emblem or other distinctive sign, recalls an alcoholic beverage”.

Dr Purves and Dr Critchlow’s study highlights the continued presence of alcohol marketing in France and its implications for Ireland’s restrictions:

“The continued presence of alibi marketing in France does have implications for the regulators and policymakers overseeing the new restrictions in Ireland, namely whether alibi marketing will also be restricted under the wording of their legislation and what arrangements are in place to monitor and enforce the restrictions.”

Dr Sheila Gilheany, Chief Executive of AAI said:

“This is a great opportunity for Ireland to implement a public health policy that will reduce alcohol advertising exposure to children. As this report highlights, the Irish Government and public health officials need to be wary of the current loopholes we see in the French approach, and ensure our regulations protect against this.”

Please see below or on our YouTube channel for the full webinar:

Scottish Government launches its 2021-2022 Programme for Government

The Scottish Government released its Programme for Government on 7 September, which lays out its plan for the next year, with this year’s focus on a ‘Fairer, Greener Scotland’.

In Chapter 1 of the programme, entitled ‘A Caring Society’, the government unveils its new vision for health and social care, including:

* Plans to take forward its NHS Recovery Plan to increase capacity and address backlogs in treatment

* Establishing the new National Care Service

* Providing the first £50million of a planned £250million investment to tackle drug deaths

The National Care Service will be tasked with handling alcohol and drug services and the programme says Scotland will “continue to lead the way with bold population-wide approaches to reduce the significant disproportionate harms of tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy diets, and to inspire healthy behaviours and lifestyles”.

This will include driving forward with their Alcohol Framework 2018, which contains a number of actions to reduce alcohol harm and “embeds the World Health Organization's focus on tackling the affordability, availability and attractiveness of alcohol”.

Specific actions include monitoring the effect of minimum unit pricing, improving alcohol labelling information, consulting on advertising restrictions in 2022, and raising awareness of the links between alcohol and cancer.

Serious injuries from drink-driving road traffic accidents at highest point since 2008

The Department for Transport released data on drink-driving accidents and casualties in 2019, which show continued stagnation of fatalities and a rise in serious injuries.

2009-2010 saw a significant drop in the number of people killed in drink-driving accidents. However since then, the numbers have plateaued around 230 deaths, as the following graph shows. 230 deaths equates to 13% of the total road traffic deaths in 2019.

Department for Transport: Fatalities in reported drink-drive accidents: GB, 2009 to 2019

Serious injuries on the other hand, rose significantly from 1,370 to 1,580 – a 15% rise. Serious injuries include fractures, internal injuries, crushings, severe cuts, or injuries that cause death 30 or more days