HL Deb 20 January 1988 vol 492 cc323-4WA
Lord Elton

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What progress the Ministerial Group on Alcohol Misuse has made, with particular reference to young people and alcohol.

Earl Ferrers

The group has agreed on a wide range of measures to tackle alcohol misuse. Account was taken of the views of the Working Group on Young People and Alcohol, chaired by the noble Baroness, Lady Masham of Ilton, which reported to the Standing Conference on Crime Prevention last November.

The measures planned include legislative changes as well as steps to secure better health education and more effective local action. The main legislative proposals are to amend the Liquor Licensing Bill to tighten the offence of selling alcohol to under-age drinkers, to increase penalties for those found guilty of doing so and to make it an offence for wholesalers to sell alcohol to people under 18. There are also plans to require both pre-packaged and dispensed drinks to be labelled with their alcoholic strength. Draft regulations will be circulated shortly.

The Government welcome the efforts which are already being made to promote non-alcoholic and low alcohol beers and wines, but we will be asking the industry to do more and to help people to understand the relative strengths of different drinks.

The Government will be asking the IBA and the Advertising and Cinema Advertising Standards Authorities, in conjunction with the industry, to reexamine their codes of practice on advertising alcohol. We see no need for a voluntary ban on advertising alcohol if these codes are tightened up and are more effectively applied. We shall also be asking the BBC and the IBA to review the way in which alcohol is presented to television viewers, both in individual programmes and cumulatively.

Effective health education is a priority. The Health Education bodies for England, Scotland, Wales and the Department of Health and Social Security, Northern Ireland will be taking the lead on this. Other government departments will also be involved. For example, the Department of Education and Science will shortly be launching a pack to help youth workers advise young people on substance misuse, including alcohol, and, with the Health Education Authority, will be considering a pack for use in schools.

Local services and organisations will be expected to work together in order to identify problems in their area and to work out a programme for dealing with them which will be the responsibility of the health services. The social services, education and youth services, the police, the probation service and magistrates will all he involved, as will local businesses, the local drinks industry and many voluntary organisations. Much is already being done but the Government will aim for better co-ordination and better use of resources.

Our programme includes action which can be taken now as well as longer term measures. It links in with other government policies on health education and the health service, on crime prevention and on drinking and driving, to which both the Government and the police are devoting considerable resources, with encouraging results.

It is consistent with our policies that consumers should be able to have greater freedom to make informed choices about what they are buying.