Industry

Alcohol trade groups mislead Prime Minister on duty ‘increase’, putting revenue – and lives – at risk

Alcohol trade groups have repeatedly claimed that the increase in duty rates in August 2023 led to the Treasury losing millions in revenue. However, this...

Alcohol’s hidden calories: a missed opportunity in obesity policy

Why is alcohol - despite the high calorie content - missing from obesity policy documents? Callum Young and Dr Benjamin Hawkins look at why policymakers...

Making the wine duty ‘easement’ permanent would negate the public health objective of the duty reform

What is the wine duty easement, why is the wine industry lobbying to make it permanent, and why would that be bad for public health?

Is Youth Drinking Decline a Global Phenomenon? We Need More Evidence Beyond the Global North

In many Western countries there has been a decline in youth alcohol consumption. Yet many countries in the Global South are experiencing the opposite trend....

Beyond Personal Harm: The Costs of Alcohol to Society

Alcohol harm has a significant cost to society in England, amounting to over £27 billion. But how is this split across society, why is it...

The game the alcohol industry played with the Dutch National Prevention Agreement

The Netherlands' ‘National Prevention Agreement’ brought together public health groups with the alcohol industry to tackle alcohol harm. Wim van Dalen explains why the industry’s...

Why do countries with high alcohol taxes still have high rates of alcohol harm?

The alcohol industry claims that raising duty cannot reduce harm because some countries with high tax rates still have high rates of harm. This is...

Why alcohol industry partnerships with civil society and governments are problematic for public health

The International Alliance for Responsible Drinking (IARD), an industry body, has launched a toolkit on partnership formation, which seeks to co-opt civil society and government...

Can a health case sustain a new Public Health Supplement in Scotland?

The Scottish Government is considering reintroducing a levy on large retailers that sell both alcohol and tobacco. Katherine Smith and Mark Hellowell discuss the previous...

Conflicts of interest in alcohol policy: What do UK policy actors think about industry involvement?

A recent study explored how alcohol policy actors understand the concept of 'Conflicts of Interest' in relation to alcohol industry engagement with UK public health...

10% of drinkers consume over half of all alcohol consumed in Australia

In Australia, a small percentage of heavy drinkers (top 10%) consume over half of the total alcohol. Cask wine and regular beer drinkers contribute significantly...

They are effective! Evidence and myths about alcohol taxes

Dr Guillermo Paraje explains the economic rationality for alcohol taxes and why the industry's arguments about tax being regressive are simplistic.

Dragging their heels: the alcohol industry’s response to mandatory pregnancy warning labels

Simone Pettigrew and Bella Sträuli look at how the alcohol industry has dragged its heels in implementing mandatory labelling in Australia.

The rules that govern the rules: why meta-regulation matters for public health

Dr Kathrin Lauber and Dr Eleanor Brooks scrutinise the crucial role of meta-regulation in health policy, using the EU's Better Regulation agenda as a focal...

Alcohol duty frozen in Autumn Statement: What does this mean?

In the Autumn Statement on Wednesday 22 November the Chancellor froze alcohol duties until 01 August 2024. We discuss what this means for hospitality, the...

Acceptable, accessible and affordable – but at what cost?

Alice Wiseman, Director of Public Health for Gateshead, discusses why it is becoming increasingly important to implement evidence-based policies to reduce alcohol consumption and harm.

Rainbows in June: Selling alcohol to LGBTQ+ people

Dr David Whiteley explains why his anger with the alcohol industry targeting LGBTQ+ communities with alcohol marketing led to carrying out a scoping review.

A flexible playbook: what unites corporate political strategies of alcohol and other health-harming industries?

The corporate political activity of unhealthy commodity industries has a lot in common. The framings and actions they use have prevented the progression of evidence-based...

Why are particular alcohol policies adopted in some contexts and not others, and what is the role of the alcohol industry in these developments?

How can post-structuralist discourse theory be used to help explain industry framing of alcohol policy in the UK? And how has the emotive power of...

How the cost of living crisis affects alcohol harm

Financial crises can have the dual effect of increasing harmful drinking while reducing overall population consumption. Dr Broadbent explains some of the nuances of consumption...