As news broke yesterday about “harmful” lockdown drinking trends in the UK, head of the country’s alcohol regulator told db that alcohol consumption and drink-related harm was on the decline.
During a conversation on Monday with Matt Lambert, who is CEO of the Portman Group – which regulates alcohol marketing in the UK – it was made clear to db that there had been an increase in alcohol-related deaths during the pandemic period in the UK, but that this was a blip: the long-term trend is not only falling consumption, but a decrease in problems linked to drink.
Recalling stories in the UK’s mainstream media to suggest that “metrics concerning alcohol are heading in the wrong direction”, and that the nation “has a serious drink problem”, he said that it was wrong to suggest that the country as a whole was “drinking far more”.
While he admitted that it “has been a terrible two years”, referring to alcohol misuse during the pandemic, which he said resulted from the “intermittent lockdowns”, he stressed that the “overall evidence” does not show that the UK is drinking more, mentioning the UK government’s own statistics.
Speaking about total alcohol consumption in the UK, he said that the amount imbibed “has gone down consistently over the past 10 years, and Britons now drink about 15% less alcohol than they did 10 years ago.”
Continuing, he stressed that if one considers “metrics like binge drinking, rates of youth drinking, drink driving, and alcohol-related crime, then they have all headed sharply down; they are typically 10% down over the past 10 years.”
As for the most recent trends, he said that it was of “deep concern” to see an increase in alcohol-related deaths of around 20% in the UK in 2020, which he noted was “driven by the pandemic, particularly the lockdowns.”
Explaining the reason for these “terrible numbers”, he said that it is being assumed that the lockdowns in the UK from early 2020 onwards meant that “there was a lack of access to health and social support.”
In such a situation, this made it difficult for people to see their GP, or gain normal access to medical services, while it ensured that those who were susceptible to drinking to excess did not have the much-needed support from friends and family, which are often key “coping mechanisms”, said Lambert.
“Regrettable though this is, and each one of those deaths is a tragedy, the overall drinking numbers have not gone up, and the majority continue to drink in moderation,” he stated.
Continuing, he commented, “The key thing here is that we need to double down on the support for those drinking to harmful levels… the government needs to put more resources behind that.”
Concluding on this topic he said, “But we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that the majority of people are drinking in moderation, and the numbers are going in the right direction, which is a good thing.”
