Supplementary written evidence submitted by Drinkaware to the Health and Social Care committee - Apr 24 (part 1)

Dear Members of the Health and Social Care Select Committee,

Further to the oral evidence session hosted by the committee on Tuesday 6 February 2024, representatives of the Faculty of Public Health and Policy (FPHP) wrote to you with a series of criticisms of the chair of the committee, committee members, individual witnesses and the alcohol industry as a whole. We are grateful for the opportunity to respond to those points directed at Drinkaware specifically which we have addressed in turn below.
 

Declarations of interest

All those presenting were directly associated with or part of the alcohol industry, or have received funding from them….Drinkaware is primarily funded by the alcohol industry and also state that they work with the industry in their charity activities (see: https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/about-us/what-we-do).

Drinkaware was established by the UK and devolved governments as an independent charity to engage the support of the alcohol industry, government(s) and other stakeholders to provide educational, community and awareness campaigning; support the respective strategies and action plans of the devolved administrations; and contribute to the process of public policy development across the UK via provision of evidence and insight.[1] The respective governments agreed that companies within the alcohol industry should fund the charity through unrestricted voluntary donations. We are currently supported by more than 300 organisations, including alcohol producers, retailers, on-trade venues and wholesalers.

As noted by the Faculty of Public Health and Policy, we are clear about how the charity is funded.[2] Indeed, the public believes that both those that produce and sell alcohol have a responsibility to do more to communicate the risks and costs associated with alcohol[3], and funding Drinkaware as an independent charity, helps them do just that.

Allegations of misinformation

….[T]hey misinform the public about how alcohol increases the risk of cancers,(1, 2) the risks of drinking in pregnancy,(3) (4) and the risk of cardiovascular disease (5). This misinformation has been found to be disseminated by Drinkaware in particular to adults and to school children, but also by the Portman Group.(1)

The researchers from the Faculty of Public Health and Policy cite their own research that appears to be based on some Drinkaware webpages from 8 years ago, in 2016.

Our website and tools provide lots of information about alcohol which follows and often directly quotes the Chief Medical Officers' (CMOs') Guidelines. All our medical advice is verified and approved by our Independent Advisory Panel (formerly a Medical Advisory Panel with a sole focus on medicine and health), made up of experts in the fields of medicine, psychology, behavioural insights and addiction. All our website content is reviewed at least every three years; this is the same review period as the NHS's own advice webpages.

Drinkaware's advice and information is targeted at adults and not school children.

We are very clear that alcohol can cause cancer, and that if you are pregnant or think you could become pregnant, then you should avoid drinking alcohol. We have included screenshots of Drinkaware's most recent advice pages on pregnancy, heart disease, and cancer below.

[4][5]

[6]

These pages were most recently reviewed in June 2022, October 2021 and January 2022, respectively, to include the most up to date information.

Ineffective measures

[I]t is unsurprising that industry would prefer and actively promote measures which are likely to be ineffective, but which involve plenty of talking: “we would like to be able to reach more actively and talk to [people] about their relationship with alcohol” (Drinkaware, Q335) “Our view is that we should all feel more comfortable as a society with talking about alcohol” (Drinkaware Q336) “having more open conversations about alcohol” (Drinkaware, Q346), and “communicating more actively with those 8 million people and encouraging people to check their drinking from time to time” (Drinkaware, Q336).

Superficially it seems reasonable to promote talking and communicating about alcohol….But the evidence is clear that this is not enough…

We reject the characterisation that talking and communicating about alcohol and the harm that alcohol can cause is ineffective. There is a wide body of evidence and good practice demonstrating that addressing stigma is important to reduce levels of alcohol harm.[7],[8] Drinkaware is one of a broad range of charities that promote and encourage this activity.[9],[10],[11],[12],[13]

Drinkaware was set up in part to help positively influence the national drinking culture and we believe reducing the stigma that those struggling with alcohol still experience today is an important, evidenced and very relevant area of this work.

At no point did Ms Tyrell suggest that improving and increasing the conversations we have about alcohol may be, should be, or is the only tool available to us to reduce the harm that alcohol can cause. On the contrary, Ms Tyrell explicitly and repeatedly recommended that the government develop and introduce a new alcohol-harm reduction strategy.

Alcohol-related deaths

The Drinkaware representative said that “Sadly, alcohol-related deaths are at an all time high of about 9,500 per year.” In fact the Local Alcohol Profiles for England show that alcohol-related deaths are over twice that, at 20,970 in 2021. She appears to have confused the lower number of alcohol-specific deaths (9641, based on ONS data) with the higher number of alcohol-related deaths.

Drinkaware's Chief Executive misspoke and unintentionally referenced “alcohol-related” deaths rather than “alcohol-specific” deaths. As Ms Tyrell also provided the figures for the number of alcohol-specific deaths, we believe a reasonable and impartial observer of the session would have understood the important point Ms Tyrell was seeking to make. However, we are grateful for this opportunity to provide absolute clarity.

...(continued)