Alcohol

• Are you drinking too much?
  
• Statistics
  
• National Policy
  
• LLR Harm Reduction Strategy
  
• Leicester City Strategy and Action Plan
  
• Leicestershire County and Rutland Strategies and Action Plan
  
• Local initiatives
  
• Publications (Sensible Measures Newsletters)
  
• Useful links                                            

 

Alcohol Statistics

• Alcohol is a major aspect of English culture. Over 90% of the adult population drink alcohol.

• Alcohol consumption in England is increasing. From the late 1950’s onwards there has been over a 100% escalation in per capita consumption from about four litres of 100% alcohol to over eight litres per head (Academy of Medical Sciences 2004).

 Children and Young People

• The percentage children and young people drinking alcohol has changed very little.

• Nationally, among 11-16 year olds in secondary schools, 25% of boys and 23% of girls report having consumed alcohol in the previous week.

• However, those children who do drink alcohol are now drinking more.

• Mean weekly units of alcohol consumed by 11 to 16 year olds have doubled between 1990 and 2002 from 5.7 units to 11.5 units for boys and from 4.7 to 9.6 units for girls (Boreham and McManus2003).

Home Consumption

• Figures published by the Government (Expenditure and Food Survey 2005-06) suggest that there has been a significant increase in the amount of adults consuming alcohol at home.

• The purchase of alcoholic drinks by UK households has risen 10% in a year and the average quantity of alcoholic drinks consumed per person over 13 years old is 0.97 litres a week.

• Home consumption has increased by 50% in the last decade. This is a lot of drinking for our children to witness.

Alcohol Related Harm

An overview of the annual cost of alcohol includes:

• 1.2 million violent incidents (around half of all violent crimes)

• 360,000 incidents of domestic violence (around a third) which are linked to alcohol misuse

• Increased anti social behaviour and fear of crime-61% of the population perceive alcohol related violence as worsening

• Expenditure of £95 million on specialist alcohol treatment

• Over 30,000 hospital admissions for alcohol dependence syndrome

• Up to 22,000 premature deaths per annum

• At peak times, up to 70% of all admissions to accident and emergency departments

• Up to 1,000 suicides

• Up to 17m working days lost through alcohol related absence

• Between 780,000 and 1.3 million children affected by parental alcohol problems

• Increased divorce-marriages where there are alcohol problems are twice as likely to end in divorce

The local picture

• Overall the East Midlands has the fourth highest level of hazardous and harmful drinkers in the UK (out of 9 regions). Leicestershire has an estimated prevalence consistent with the average for the East Midlands in terms of binge, hazardous and harmful drinking.

 

• The East Midlands has been identified as the region with the lowest prevalence of dependent drinkers at 1.6%. However this still amounts to a significant number of people.

 

• 75% of men and 62% of women in the East Midlandsreport drinking in the last week (2004 the General Household Survey)

• 23% of men and 11% of women in the East Midlands reported binge drinking on at least one day in the previous week

• Although knowledge of alcohol units is increasing only 13% of adults who had heard of units used them to keep a check on how many units they drank 
 

• There were approximately 30,000 alcohol-related hospital admissions during 2004/05 in the East Midlands

 

• Leicestershire has been identified as one of the areas with the highest rises in rates of hospital admissions related to alcohol, with an increase of 23% between 2002-03 and 2006-07. If this rise in rates continues Leicestershire is likely to be above average in a number of indicators.

 

• Oadby and Wigston is the only district within Leicestershire that has hospital admission rates for alcohol related harm that is higher than the East Midland and England average, particularly amongst females.

 

• Overall in Leicestershire deaths from alcoholic liver disease amongst men outnumber those amongst women by around two-to-one. However North West Leicestershire is the exception to this where more women than men die from this condition.

 

• Alcohol is a factor in an estimated 2,000 deaths annually in the East Midlands

• The mortality rate due to alcohol related diseases varies throughout the region with more than a two fold difference across local authorities

• Mortality rates from chronic liver disease have more than doubled in the last ten years

• Nationally, over one fifth (22%) of pupils aged 11 to 15 drank alcohol in the last week. Young people in Leicestershire are less likely to have had an alcohol drink when compared to the national figure. However young people in Leicestershire are more likely to have been drunk once or twice but not lately (Ofsted TellUs2).

•  40% of prisoners in the East Midlands and 38% of offenders serving community sentences were identified as having alcohol misuse issues related to their offending

 

For more demographic information and statistics on alcohol in the East Midlands please go to the East Midlands Public Health Observatory:

   

Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England

The Government’s Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England was published in March 2004. The Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit developed the strategy as a cross-cutting initiative to tackle all aspects of alcohol-related harm in England.

This relied on creating partnership working at both national and local levels between government, the drinks industry, health and police services, individuals and communities to tackle alcohol misuse focussed on the follwing key areas:

• Better education and communication
• Improving health and treatment services
• Combating alcohol related crime and disorder
• Working with the alcohol industry

Safe. Sensible. Social. The next steps in the National Alcohol Strategy

The new alcohol strategy: Safe.Sensible.Social The next steps in the National Alcohol Strategy was published in June 2007. it builds upon the previous strategy by emphasising key areas that the government identifies as in need of particular focus, these are:

 • Ensuring that the laws and licensing powerss introduced to tackle alcohol-fuelled crime and disorder, protect young people and bear down on irresponsibly managed premises are being used widely and effectively .

• A sharpened focus on the minority of drinkers who cause or experience the most harm to themselves, their communities and their families. These are, young people under 18 who drink alcohol, 18–24-year-old binge drinkers and harmful drinkers.

 

• Shaping an environment that actively promotes sensible drinking. This is to be achieved by investing in better information and communications, and by drawing on the skills and commitment of all those already working together to reduce the harm alcohol can cause, including the police, local authorities, prison and probation staff, the NHS, voluntary organisations, the alcohol industry, the wider business community, the media and, of course, local communities themselves.

The new strategy identifies a long term goal, namely to:

“Minimise the health harms, violence and antisocial behaviour associated with alcohol, while ensuring that people are able to enjoy alcohol safely and responsibly”.

Other strategic guidance documents

Further national guidance regarding the implementation of local alcohol harm reduction approaches have been documented in Choosing Health‘-Making Healthy Choices Easier’ (DoH 2004), ‘Alcohol Misuse Interventions - Guidance on developing a local programme of improvement’ (DoH 2005) and ‘Models of Care for Alcohol Misuse (National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (2006).

In addition to the publication of the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategies, The Licensing Act 2003 has also impacted on work to reduce the harms associated with alcohol. The act has measures to tackle alcohol related crime and disorder, allows for greater flexibility in opening hours, strengthens protection for children and gives the public more of say on the impact of licensed premises in their communities. The licensing act provides greater opportunities for local agencies to ensure that licensees operate responsibly and provide drinking environments that promote sensible drinking and public safety.

LLR Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy

The implementation of an alcohol strategy is a key goal in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. Minimising the harms through a strategic approach will support partner agencies to achieve improvements in health and to reduce crime, accidents, social and economic burdens.

A partnership of statutory, voluntary and private sector agencies are working closely together to create the Leicester City, Leicestershire and Rutland strategies . Each authority is producing an action plan focused on the following key areas-alcohol related crime and disorder, working with the alcohol industry, education and communication, identification and treatment.

The individual strategies and action plans demonstrate a multi agency commitment to reducing and preventing the harms associated with the misuse of alcohol across the sub region.

Leicester City Alcohol Strategy and Action Plan

Local initiatives

    

Pubwatch

   

Challenge 21

The British Beer and Pub Association
The British Beer and Pub Association website contains information on the history of beer and the brewing process, with specific information for schools on drinking and driving and how alcohol affects the body in the 'Drive Safe' section.

Portman Group

Institute of Alcohol Studies

Department for Education and Skills publications