20 February 2025
By James Bayley in Drinks Business
Image by Alex Barcley from Pixabay
If there’s one thing we Brits excel at, it’s a contradiction. We queue religiously yet love to complain about the waiting. We champion free speech yet deplore those with opposing views. And now, we drink less than ever, yet alcohol-related deaths have reached record levels.
For all the handwringing in Westminster about the perils of alcohol, the numbers tell an awkward story. In 2023, the UK registered 10,473 alcohol-specific deaths, yet alcohol consumption has been on a steady decline, especially among the younger generations. The taxman, of course, sees a simple solution: raise duty on wine and spirits, penalise the responsible consumer and hope the problem disappears. But as with all simplistic solutions, this one misses the point entirely.
The numbers don’t add up
Consider the latest ONS data: alcohol-specific death rates fell slightly in 2023 compared to 2022 (15.9 per 100,000 versus 16.6 per 100,000), yet they remain worryingly high. England and Wales saw increases, while Scotland and Northern Ireland, where minimum unit pricing (MUP) has been in place for years, continue to have the highest rates. The North East of England topped the charts with 25.7 deaths per 100,000, while the East of England had the lowest at 11.5 per 100,000.
And then there’s the rather inconvenient truth that alcohol consumption is falling. A new survey by Movendi, a subsidiary of the WHO, finds that 43% of young people aged 18 to 34 are now alcohol-free, and even among middle-aged Britons, a third have ditched the booze. Dry January reached record participation and supermarket sales of no and low alcohol alternatives are soaring. This isn’t anecdotal — it’s a fundamental shift in drinking culture. And yet, alcohol-related deaths persist.
So why is the government still fixated on raising alcohol duty, when the evidence suggests the problem lies elsewhere? [READ MORE…]