National Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy

The National Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy (NAHRS),was implemented in March 2004, and sets out the policy framework of reference for Alcohol in England and Wales across many Government Departments.

The Strategy comprises four main strands:

• Education and Communication.
• Identification and Treatment.
• Alcohol Related Crime and Disorder.
• Supply and Industry Responsibility.

Full text of the Strategy can be found here:
www.strategy.gov.uk/work_areas/alcohol_misuse/index.asp

Background Papers to the Strategy are also available on this website including:

• Consultation Document and Responses .
• Initial Regulatory Impact Assessment*.
• Interim Analytical Report*.
• Paper on the Economic Costs of Alcohol Abuse.

These papers can be found here:
www.strategy.gov.uk/work_areas/alcohol_misuse/background.asp

*The Regulatory Impact Assessment is an analysis of the likely impacts of the policy change and the range of options available for implementing i.

*The Interim Analytical Report preceded the release of the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy. It is regarded to be a very important document, which contains important elements of scientific evidence, for example in relation to the links between alcohol and violence, and the effects of increasing availability of alcohol. The Strategy itself has been criticised for being a ‘watered down’ version of the Interim Report, as many of these key elements were subsequently ignored in the final document.

The report “Calling Time: the Nation's Drinking as a Major Health Issue”, was published by the Academy of Medical Sciences (February 2004), prior to the publication of the strategy, in response to the worries surrounding this.

The report focuses on the overall national consumption of alcohol, the evidence that this is a major determinant of harm and the opportunities for effective public health intervention that follow from this. It concludes that the scientific evidence indicates that, for the health of the public, action is required to reduce consumption of alcohol at a population level.
www.acmedsci.ac.uk/p48prid16.html

Institute of Alcohol Studies Responses to both the Interim Analytical Report & The National Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy can be found here:
www.ias.org.uk/resources/papers/papers.html

You can also find articles relating to this in the Archive of our magazine Alcohol Alert
www.ias.org.uk/resources/publications/alcoholalert/alert200602/al200602_index.html