The contradictions of Britain’s relationship to drink are reflected by this report. Welcome though it is that many people are drinking within the recommended limits, nearly half of all adults drink above the safe daily limits at least once a week — often above twice these levels. And, most important of all, evidence of the harm caused to health is increasing.

This paradox underlines the difficulties in seeking to change Britain’s drinking culture: we are dealing with all sorts of people drinking in different ways and for different reasons. The middle-aged woman trying to cope with a demanding job and domestic life and drinking every evening at home is a far cry from the exuberant 18-year-old forging friendships at the student union bar.

The Alcohol Health Alliance is promoting steps that would help. The first is to ensure that people have ready access to practical information. People’s knowledge of what constitutes safe drinking is still very poor. The Government’s information campaigns are to be supported — but if the messages about safe drinking are to get through, people need to know how to keep track of the units they are consuming, something currently very hard to do. The proposed mandatory alcohol code promised in this year’s Policing and Crime Bill does not go far enough. It would cost manufacturers virtually nothing extra to include the unit information on their containers, and do much to enable people to count their units.

The second priority is to provide support for problem drinkers. Nearly a quarter of people drinking more than eight units a day would like to drink less. Yet Britons with chronic alcohol dependency often have to wait up to a year to get on a treatment programme. When heavy drinkers accept that they are running into difficulties, there must be timely access to help.

The third matter is the thorny one of price. The pivotal role of increasing affordability of alcohol over the past few decades in increasing consumption and harm has been yet again confirmed, this time by researchers from the University of Sheffield who reviewed the evidence at the request of the Department of Health. They showed that a minimum unit price would target heavy and under-age drinkers while affecting moderate drinkers very little.

Professor Ian Gilmore is president of the Royal College of Physicians

Sobering facts

— Adults in the North West were most likely to report drinking more than the recommended safe limit of four units (for men) or three units (women) on their heaviest drinking day. The lowest numbers doing so were in the West Midlands

— Twenty-two per cent of managers and professionals drank alcohol on five or more days in the past week

— Beer accounts for 64 per cent of weekly alcohol consumption among men aged 25 or under. Over-65s are the biggest spirits drinkers

— The proportion of 11 to 15-year-olds who have never drunk alcohol rose from 39 per cent in 2003 to 46 per cent in 2007. Pupils in secondary modern and grammar schools had higher rates of drinking than those in comprehensive schools

— The percentage of mothers-to-be who drink alcohol during their pregnancy decreased from 66 per cent in 1995 to 54 per cent in 2005

Source: NHS Information Centre

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