Great question from Navendu Mishra MP on the merits of developing a cross-departmental strategy to tackle alcohol harm.

Andrea Leadsom MP points to no & low alcohol products, ACTs, & Drug Strategy funding.

But what we urgently need is prevention policies.

questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questi…

Echoing what Dan Carden MP said in a piece for The House magazine:

'If Labour succeeds in forming a government, we have an exciting opportunity to demonstrate the crucial importance of prevention policies.'

politicshome.com/thehouse/artic…

The government is failing to tackle record-high alcohol-related deaths. Well said Dan Carden MP

Alcohol is the leading risk factor for ill health & death among those aged 15 to 49 and yet its been over a decade since the government's last alcohol strategy. politicshome.com/thehouse/artic…

Although referral to alcohol treatment via the criminal legal system can lead to greater completion for some, there is significant inequity in both who is referred to treatment by the system, and the impact of that referral on completion - Madeline R. Stenersen

ias.org.uk/2024/05/01/ret…

During cost-of-living crises, drinking tends to fall across the population, but with increases in high-risk alcohol use seen among some subgroups.

Targeted support as well as population-based measures to reduce consumption are crucial during these times.

ias.org.uk/report/alcohol…

The Government is failing to tackle record-high alcohol-related deaths.

📰 My article for The House magazine:

politicshome.com/thehouse/artic…

'We need to make binge-drinking as socially unacceptable as smoking. Alcoholism tears apart families, ends friendships, ruins lives and kills people. There is something very, very wrong here.'

Gary Nunn 🏳️‍🌈🚴🏼🇬🇧🇦🇺 on children drinking and the rise in alcohol harm.

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Schools use “misleading & biased” materials funded by the alcohol industry to educate pupils as young as nine about drinking.

This includes focusing the blame of alcohol harm on individuals, teaching kids how to pour drinks, & omitting health information

theguardian.com/society/2022/j…

.Dan Carden MP reflects on the record high alcohol deaths in 2022:

'If you were to judge the level of crisis by what the govt is doing to prevent it, you’d be forgiven for thinking that nothing was wrong.'

He says govt inertia has allowed this to happen.

politicshome.com/thehouse/artic…

'As with most things, increasing [alcohol] deaths have roots in a constellation of socioeconomic inequalities, a dearth of services, plus poor public messaging that may or may not be related to the financial muscle of Big Alcohol.' David Hillier

theguardian.com/society/2024/a…

Alcohol directly causes cardiovascular disease (CVD).

And in 2021, almost half of all alcohol-related hospital admissions were for CVD.

Watch our full film for more information: youtube.com/watch?v=lh7TzX…

#HeartFailureAwarenessDays European Society of Cardiology

The rise in alcohol deaths 'was not inevitable and it cannot be explained away as the product of the pandemic. It is a policy failure'. - Shadow Public Health Minister Preet Kaur Gill MP

.Christian Wakeford MP raises the issue of alcohol-specific deaths and the 2012 Alcohol Strategy.

Penny Mordaunt responds that 'in addition to that strategy, there has been a huge amount of work going on'.

However, practically none of the 2012 Strategy's policies were implemented.

The government's U-turn on introducing Minimum Unit Pricing a decade ago was partly due to their “cosy relationship with big alcohol. Over and over again we see how the industry is an active participant in policy development'. Rebecca Coombes The BMJ

bmj.com/content/385/bm…