Alcohol policy and devolution in Wales

The National Assembly for Wales is primarily concerned with the development and implementation of Secondary Legislation. Consequently, some of the most contentious issues in the field of alcohol policy such as the current discussions surrounding the re-working of licensing laws have passed by the Institution in Cardiff. However, Wales has historically had the right to conduct referenda on proposals to extend pub opening hours and while they have hardly led to tighter licensing, the referenda were in a very small sense an example of devolution – local communities deciding how and when licensed premises should be regulated. It is somehow ironic therefore that this aspect of licensing, currently under review by the Westminster government, will not be examined by the Assembly nor its members given an opportunity to debate it.

At the moment the Assembly has responsibility for Education, Health and Social Services, Economic Development, Arts and Culture and Agriculture. A minister drawn from the Labour-Liberal coalition and monitored by a committee of Assembly Members heads each policy area.

To date the focus has been on seeing alcohol as purely a Health and Social Service issue. Alcohol policy has been coupled with drug abuse under the common substance misuse strategy: Tackling Substance Misuse, The Partnership Approach. Calls to develop a specific alcohol policy for Wales have been ignored. Whilst the current strategy has four themes, its principal aim is to promote education as prevention, to provide resources to treat addiction and despite its commitment to address consumption, is void of any plans to realistically tackle the level of alcohol consumption in Wales.

With its emphasis on treatment and prevention through health promotion, the National Assembly's alcohol policy can be defined best, to borrow the worn analogy, as the ambulance at the foot of the cliff, not the fence at the top. For the Assembly administration, an alcohol problem is simply a medical condition, something that is treated. A bit like catching a cold if you are foolish enough to venture outside with wet hair.

Wales, traditionally stereotyped as country of heavy industry, non-conformist religion and rugby, currently features high in any analysis of alcohol consumption and, unsurprisingly, alcohol related harm. Formerly the twin pillars of its society, industry and religion served to contextualise alcohol consumption.

These institutions promoted distinct cultures symbolised more often than not by the chapel and the union or workingmen's club. Communities often had a large supply and choice of both pubs and chapels often in equal measure. And whilst alcohol use was commonplace it was no more normal or common possibly than abstinence. The union or in mining communities, lodge culture also provided social guidelines and values. Alcohol use, traditionally a masculine pastime had distinct social norms and its own acceptable behaviour. Drunkenness was frowned upon even within the context of the pub or club as a sign of a lack of masculinity. The same was true of swearing and bad language. To drink a large amount was acceptable, to be drunk was not.

Similarly, the chapel exercised a strong hold on the community, and in a very practical sense provided alternative leisure and recreational activity. It also provided a worldview that lifted individuals from the everyday struggle to earn a living and enculturated its own values and norms.

It is almost a truism to point out that the demise of industry brought the death of the trade union movement. The non-conformist religion has also died and clubs, pubs and chapels have been demolished. In the case of many chapels they have been converted into bingo halls, warehouses or most recently into the latest theme pub. So if the devolved government cannot tackle the problems of chronic alcohol consumption directly we can only hope that it can do it indirectly through addressing the social and economic factors often associated with it.

The Assembly is well placed to tackle the economic and social factors that have brought social exclusion and relative poverty to Wales. But despite the establishment of the Assembly and growth in the UK economy, GDP continues to fall in Wales. The last vestige of its industrial past is disappearing and the Asian manufacturing plants have retreated with the death of their tiger economies. Such poor economic performance has however earned Wales the prestigious designation of Objective 1 status (the consolation prize for the poorest economic performance in Europe) and substantial assistance for restructuring. Following the Irish model, seven years of investment should contribute in some small way to addressing its economic decline and under achievement. One thing is true, things cannot really get much worse, and when you hit the bottom the only way is up.

However, whilst historically strong and vibrant communities built upon the twin pillars of religion and industry enabled a social order to exist that ameliorated the effect of alcohol, the promised economic resurgence alone will not provide such an antidote. In fact, a pattern is emerging where economic growth and in particular the rise of disposable income, rather than decreasing alcohol consumption, will add to the growing trend towards binge drinking. The bare fact is that the value-laden world of religion and trade unionism (today what we would call social action) has been replaced by a post eighties consumerism. The rise of alcohol as a consumer product is widely recognised and affects Wales to the same degree as other developed economies and cultures.

So the National Assembly lacks the powers to address alcohol policy directly and can only pick up the pieces. It can and arguably must play a role in rebuilding Wales' economic base alongside Westminster in the hope that this in some way will have an effect on social exclusion and aspects of chronic alcohol consumption. In its favour, the National Assembly for Wales can be said to lack the power to act unlike those administrations that simply lack the will!

Iestyn T Davies is the Director, Welsh Council on Alcohol and other drugs