Alcohol pricing and harm: the research evidence

As part of the considerations of how to achieve the Coalition commitment to deliver a ban on below cost sales, the Home Office carried out a review of alcohol pricing. The Home Office had also commissioned a study of alcohol pricing and criminal harm from the School of Health and Related Research at the University of Sheffi eld.

The main conclusion drawn by the Home Office from these studies is that there is a link between a rise in the price of alcohol and a reduction in alcohol harms but that the relationships between price and harm are complex and not fully understood.

The conclusion of the Home Office review of alcohol pricing is that, on balance, the international evidence base suggests that policies designed to increase the price of alcohol may be effective in reducing the harms caused by alcohol. However, alcohol price is only one factor that may affect levels of alcohol consumption, with individual, cultural, situational and social factors also influential.

The review highlights that a number of potential impacts of increasing alcohol price are currently under-researched. There is limited UK-based research on alcohol pricing and criminal harm related to alcohol consumption, with UK evidence, in the main, limited to theoretical economic modelling studies. The evidence base for a link between alcohol pricing and crime is less comprehensive than that between alcohol price and consumption and alcohol price and health harms. Although evidence for a link between alcohol price and crime suggests that price increases tend to be associated with reductions in crime, this relationship is not linear and the evidence base is not able to support a direct causal link.

For individual crime types rather than overall crime, the evidence base for a link between alcohol price and violence is largest with the balance of evidence tending to support this link. Less is known about the potential distributional impacts on specific population groups, such as the impact on different income groups or how policies will impact on the majority of responsible drinkers, with the body of evidence tending to focus on impacts to heavier and younger drinkers.

Little is known about how the alcohol industry may be affected by alcohol pricing policies.

On the basis of the evidence reviewed, it is not possible to determine which alcohol pricing policies may be the most effective.

Public perceptions of alcohol and crime - Majority think drinking ‘out of control’ in England and Wales

The results of a study of public perceptions of the link between alcohol price and crime are also informing the policy-making process. The study was commissioned by the previous Labour Government but the findings are being used by the Coalition in regard to its review of alcohol taxation and pricing.

One finding to emerge was that the public’s views on alcohol questions are not always consistent.

The main findings of the survey were:

• In regard to perceptions of a link between alcohol and crime and disorder, a majority (65%) of those questioned agreed with the statement that ‘the amount people drink in this country is out of control’, although most (71%) also agreed that problem drinking is carried out by a minority

• 65% agreed that the Government needs to take action to stop people drinking too much, though

• 57% also thought that how much you drink is a personal choice and the Government should not interfere

• 68% of drinkers said they would support an increase in the price of alcohol in supermarkets, off-licences and convenience stores if a link could be proved between cheap alcohol and levels of crime and anti-social behavior

• 46% of drinkers said they would support an increase in the price of alcohol in these stores regardless of a link being proved

• 55% of the total sample felt that raising alcohol prices would not make any difference to the UK’s drinking levels - 38% thought it would have an impact

• Only 19% of drinkers said that they personally would drink less if the price of alcohol were raised

• 74% of drinkers thought that raising the price of alcohol would just be another way of increasing taxes

The likely impacts of increasing alcohol price:
a summary review of the evidence base. Home Office, January 2011

Public Perceptions of Alcohol Pricing:
Market Research Report. Bdrc continental. Prepared for Central Office of Information on behalf of the Home Office. November 2010.