According to new ideas by experts and legislators, the price of beer, wine, and spirits may increase, and they may be marketed with additional warning labels.
Today, Alcohol Health Alliance UK (AHA) asked for an impartial review of alcohol’s negative effects.
It desires that ministers be provided with a list of “evidence-based” policy actions geared to combat Britain’s drinking culture.
This summer, similar government-commissioned research on tobacco issued a series of bold proposals, including prohibiting youngsters from ever purchasing smokes. It was dubbed “nanny statism on steroids” by critics.
In an open letter to Rishi Sunak, the coalition of charities, MPs, and Lords signaled that they would support higher alcohol pricing and less alcohol advertising.
They stated, “Strong evidence supports the efficacy of measures to lower the pricing, promotion, and availability of alcohol, such as alcohol taxes and a comprehensive advertising ban.
AHAUK also requests that a “prominent health warning” and calorie information be placed on the packaging of beer, wine, and spirits.
There are already some labels on alcoholic beverages, such as pregnancy warnings, but no nutritional recommendations.
Adopting the measures will cut problem drinking, which costs the United Kingdom approximately £27 billion annually, according to the organization.
AHAUK asserted that such policies would also educate consumers about how much they are consuming and how fattening it may be.
However, protesters criticized the ‘nannying’ proposals, stating that a tax increase would be unnecessary because Britons already pay more in taxes than “most of their European peers.”
In the United Kingdom, adults pay 19 pence for every liter of beer with an alcohol content of less than 7.5%, and 25 pence for anything stronger.
A bottle of wine containing 5 to 15% alcohol incurs almost £3 in duty tax.
Before Jeremy Hunt’s U-turn on Kwasi Kwarteng’s policy earlier this month, alcohol duty was scheduled to be dropped in February of 2023.
Britons are recommended not to regularly consume more than 14 units each week, which is similar to six pints of lager or ten small glasses of wine.
Men in the United States are advised not to consume more than 14 small cans of beer per week, while women should limit themselves to no more than seven small glasses of wine.
Long-term excessive drinking increases the risk of numerous diseases, including heart disease, stroke, liver disease, and cancer.
Under a 2011 crackdown, the British alcohol industry promised to label 80 percent of bottles and cans with responsibility warnings.
This includes displaying the number of units in each beverage, national guidelines, and pregnancy warnings. It also carries the generic message “please drink responsibly.”
However, labeling is not required, and AHAUK research from June found that only 3% of alcohol products carry a general health warning.
Research published last week suggests that statements on bottles may not truly assist high-risk drinkers in reducing their consumption.
MPs including Labour’s Dan Carden, chair of the Drugs, Alcohol and Justice all-party parliamentary group (APPG), and Christian Wakeford, who defected from the Conservatives to Labour last year, signed today’s letter to the Prime Minister.
Experts such as Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, chair of Alcohol Health Alliance UK, and Dr. Tony Rao, consultant psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, also signed the document.
They stated that problem drinking causes harm throughout the United Kingdom, which conceals several personal tragedies.
Alcohol is the primary cause of death among those under the age of 50, and alcohol-related deaths reached an all-time high during the Covid epidemic.
The letter stated, “Alcohol costs our society at least £27 billion annually, of which less than half is offset by alcohol tax revenue.”
This includes both direct expenses, such as the $11.4 billion incurred by alcohol-related crime and indirect costs, such as leading to obesity and overweight.
It did not define how much alcohol taxes should increase or how advertising would be reduced.
Additionally, the group did not specify whether the tax would be an increase of existing duty taxes or a new levy similar to the one levied on sugary items.
This tax increased the price of beverages containing more than 8 grams of sugar per 100 milliliters by 24 pence per liter.
AHAUK, which represents sixty organizations collaborating to decrease the harm caused by alcohol, also expects that its demands for improved labeling will be incorporated into “a new national Alcohol Strategy.”
According to the association, all alcohol products should include pregnancy, drinking and driving, age, and health warnings.
In addition, they should include ingredient and nutrition information, as well as the Chief Medical Officers’ recommendations for low-risk consumption, they urge.
However, campaigners stated that the proposed tax hike would disproportionately affect low-income households and that lowering advertising and strengthening warnings are “nonsense.”
Alcohol is taxed to cover the social costs of drinking, such as antisocial behavior, according to Daniel Pryor, head of research at the Adam Smith Institute think tank.
However, present charges adequately cover these expenses, and British drinkers pay more to the taxman than the majority of their European peers.
He continued, “More ad ban nonsense misunderstands how marketing works; it doesn’t brainwash us into drinking another beer; rather, it steers us toward one brand over another.
And while appropriate labeling on items such as calories can assist enlighten drinkers, it runs the risk of being co-opted by anti-alcohol activists to propagate pseudoscientific scaremongering.
According to Christopher Snowdon, head of lifestyle economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs, the government’s U-turn on freezing alcohol duty has ‘encouraged the temperance lobby to advocate for its usual assortment of puritanical policies’
He told MailOnline, “Given that a third of bars anticipate bankruptcy within the next year, the government would be insane to impose additional taxes on drinkers.”
The United Kingdom already has the fifth highest wine tax in Europe, the fifth highest beer tax, and the sixth highest spirits tax.
If high taxes were the route to responsible drinking, our nation would be one of the world’s most sober.
John O’Connell, chief executive officer of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, stated, “Given escalating prices, it is unreasonable to expect Brits to pay more tax on the price of a pint.”
‘Further increases in alcohol taxes will simply burden the poorest households while doing little to discourage problem drinkers.
The chancellor should stand with the millions of taxpayers who enjoy an occasional drink and keep his promise to freeze and simplify alcohol taxes.
