I beg to move,

That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision for the regulation of the pricing and labelling of alcohol products; to further restrict alcohol advertising; to make provision in relation to public order and alcohol-related offences; and for connected purposes.

This month a smoking ban has been introduced in England and people have been asking what the next big public health challenge is. I, for one, believe that we urgently need to turn our attention to the growing effect that misuse and abuse of alcohol is having on our society. In many ways, that is a more difficult problem to tackle than smoking. With smoking the message is quite clear. A person’s health is affected whatever the level of smoking. Smoking can kill and it affects others. With alcohol, the messages are less clear. People who drink regular small amounts live longer than teetotallers. Red wine is regarded as having some health benefits and the good news for cider drinkers is that it was recently discovered to be high in antioxidants.

I probably need to declare an interest here because I am actually a member of the all-party groups on wine, beer and cider, and at the end of the week I will be visiting one of my local pubs. I fully acknowledge that for many people alcohol is a source of enjoyment rather than being a problem. But it is becoming apparent that there is a growing problem due to the misuse of alcohol.

The facts speak for themselves. In 2005-06, there were more than 19,000 diagnoses of episodes of alcohol-related cirrhosis of the liver in England—an increase of 178 per cent. in the past nine years. As if that were not bad enough the figures show that not only is the incidence of liver disease increasing among the middle aged but younger people are being diagnosed more frequently. There has also been a well documented increase in young women binge drinking—there are more under-18 female hospital admissions than male, and the prevalence shows a strong link to the increase in the rate of binge drinking. Hospital admissions of patients with alcohol poisoning have almost doubled over the past 10 years.

The escalating direct health problems are bad enough, but high alcohol intake is often linked with unprotected teenage sex and hardly a person in the country has escaped the impact of alcohol-related antisocial behaviour. So tackling the alcohol abuse problem will not only improve the health of the nation, but will help reduce levels of antisocial behaviour. Three years ago, the cost to the nation of alcohol misuse was estimated as £20 billion. It is time for action.

Sadly, I am not saying anything new. In 2004, the Prime Minister’s strategy unit launched the alcohol harm reduction strategy for England. It was absolutely appropriate that there was top-level attention from the then Prime Minister, who wrote the introduction to the strategy. The strategy has seen disappointingly little progress, so my hope for the future is that the current Prime Minister succeeds and turns warm words into positive action. I do not think that the Minister with responsibility for public health has been announced yet, but we have a clue in that the Minister of State, Department of Health, the right hon. Member for Bristol, South (Dawn Primarolo), is sitting on the Front Bench, and I welcome her to her new job. Simple measures can be implemented that, when taken as a package, will help to tackle the problem.

First, I want to talk about pricing. In a ten-minute Bill, I am not allowed to consider tax-raising powers, but the more general issue of pricing and display of alcohol needs to be tackled. Currently, alcoholic drinks are frequently used by supermarkets as a loss leader, and that practice must stop. There is clear evidence to show that the cheaper beer is, the higher the rate of binge drinking. Many alcoholic drinks are relatively less expensive than they were 10 years ago, which means that children are increasingly able to afford to buy alcohol.

A report from the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2004 reviewed the evidence on the relationship between price and consumption, showing that increased consumption was closely related to the rise in affordability. In particular, heavy drinkers and under-age drinkers are more affected than other drinkers by the price of alcohol. For that reason, it would appear to make sense to place a duty on retailers to prove that they are not selling alcoholic drinks as loss leaders.

I am not a lone voice in that regard. The Royal College of Physicians, in its evidence to the Competition Commission in respect of the groceries market, made one major recommendation:

“Supermarkets should not sell alcohol below cost price and preventive measures should be introduced if necessary. The result of below-cost selling is likely to be a rise in consumption, leading to more alcohol-related disease, social disorder and other social problems. It is highly irresponsible for supermarkets to sell alcohol below cost or at a deep discount, knowing the likely consequences. If supermarkets wish to make a positive contribution to the health of the nation and be more socially responsible, they could switch to discounting healthy foods.”

Alcohol advertising also needs to be tackled. The 2004 strategy called for a review of the code, and Ofcom introduced new restrictions in October 2005, but those are self-regulated. Adverts are now not supposed to link sexual success with a brand. The rules on portrayal of daring, aggressive, irresponsible or antisocial behaviour were tightened, and adverts should not have a strong appeal to those under 18. Things have improved.

A recent analysis of those changes by the advertising industry concluded—surprise, surprise—that the new code of advertising was working. Unsurprisingly, it believes that no further regulation is necessary. That belief appears to be based, however, on an assumption that there are low levels of public concern and that most adults do not think that banning advertising would reduce under-age drinking. No direct assessment has been made of the impact of advertising on young drinkers. The industry also claims that a pre-watershed ban is not necessary because current restrictions mean that alcohol advertisements are not placed in or around programmes watched by a high proportion of under 18s. That misses the point entirely, because while some programmes with high viewing figures may have a higher percentage of adult viewers, their overall viewing figures are so high that the number of under-18s watching and being influenced is also high.

Alcohol Concern reviewed alcohol adverts during a seven-day period in December 2006. It demonstrated that more alcohol adverts were shown before the watershed than after and that the majority of supermarket alcohol-related adverts were shown before the watershed. Evidence from other countries demonstrates a clear link between advertising and alcohol consumption. Manufacturers would not waste their money on advertising if it did not increase sales.

Despite the fact that there is a complete ban on advertising tobacco products, I am not yet convinced that a complete ban on alcohol advertising is necessary. We should commence with the following measures. First, there should be no alcohol advertising before the watershed or in cinemas unless the film has an over-18 rating. Secondly, we need to take a close look at sponsorship of sports events and music festivals to ensure that advertising linked with those events does not glamorise and thereby increase drinking.

Improvements are also needed in education and labelling. In the 2004 strategy, the Government stated that they would completely overhaul the way they presented messages about alcohol and they announced a programme to improve work in schools. The success or failure of that programme is as yet difficult to assess, but it is increasingly apparent that alcohol education programmes in schools do not address the binge-drinking culture. However, when binge-drinking spills over into antisocial behaviour and young drinkers come into contact with the criminal justice system, we have an opportunity to get clear messages across to young people who may be developing problem drinking habits or behaviours. That opportunity is currently being wasted.

I propose that arrest referral schemes be introduced in every borough command unit as there is growing evidence that working with offenders positively and proactively can reduce reoffending owing to alcohol-related offences. The Government have introduced alcohol awareness campaigns, but again it is a little too early to assess their impact. However, the Government have resisted legislating on alcohol labelling, although they have encouraged the alcohol industry in that direction. The Bill addresses that deficit and would set a date by which all alcohol products would be labelled with clear information about the number of units in a drink, a reminder of the different safe limits for men and women and a warning about the use of alcohol in pregnancy. That would help people to make informed choices about which drinks they choose.

Those measures, combined with a hard-hitting advertising and awareness campaign, would go some way towards tackling the alcohol-related problems that blight the lives of many.

Question put and agreed to.

Bill ordered to be brought in by Sandra Gidley, Mr. David Amess, Bob Russell, Norman Lamb, Kelvin Hopkins, Dr. John Pugh, Dr. Doug Naysmith, Lynda Waltho and Chris Bryant.

Alcohol (Harm Reduction)

Sandra Gidley accordingly presented a Bill to make provision for the regulation of the pricing and labelling of alcohol products; to further restrict alcohol advertising; to make provision in relation to public order and alcohol-related offences; and for connected purposes: And the same was read the First time; and ordered to be read a Second time on Friday 19 October, and to be printed [Bill 142].