Alcohol Labelling Bill [HL]

My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend Lord Mitchell on introducing his Bill. I well understand that he must be extremely frustrated to have missed the first part of the debate. We well understand why that was the case. It is not a criticism but our noble friend Lord Griffiths did an excellent job with his reference to a minister with a wine cellar. He is absolutely right that no one can be against the important ethos behind this Bill. We wish his daughter well. My noble friend Lord Mitchell is a formidable standard bearer for the National Organisation for Foetal Alcohol Syndrome. We all admire his great and growing expertise. I commend him especially on his tenacity and commitment in seeking to place a legal obligation on alcohol producers to provide information on product labels warning women of the potential risks to the unborn child of alcohol misuse. As he mentioned, this is the second occasion within a year that he has presented such a Bill to this House. As he will know from his recent discussions with my right honourable friend the Minister of State for Public Health, the Government have considerable sympathy with the motivation behind his Bill. He will also know that the Government are seeking to encourage the alcohol industry to implement a more wide-ranging alcohol labelling regime, the details of which were set out by my noble friend Lord Hunt last April. In May 2007, the Government announced that we have reached an agreement with the industry to include health and other information on alcohol product labels. This will include: the drink's unit content and the recommended government sensible drinking guidelines; UK health departments recommend men do not regularly exceed three to four units daily and women two to three units daily; and the Drinkaware website address, detailing sensible drinking messages from the charity Drinkaware. For wines and spirits, unit information will normally be given per glass and per bottle, but I recognise the difficulties raised by the noble Lord, Lord McColl. We did not, unfortunately, reach full agreement with the trade associations to include the Government’s wording, or an alternative logo, on alcohol and pregnancy. We know that some trade associations are encouraging this, and a number of major producers and most supermarkets are willing to do this. We expect most of the industry to approach this positively. We are strongly encouraging all the others to do so, as far as possible and hope to see widespread implementation. We are very shortly to commission independent monitoring of the progress that is being made by the industry in fulfilling the terms of the agreement. I am aware that my noble friend is somewhat sceptical about the industry’s full commitment to fulfilling the agreement, and the likelihood of implementation of our wording on alcohol and pregnancy. For the Government’s part, I hope that this scepticism is unfounded and that the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, is correct. Certainly, from our dealings with them, there does seem to be a genuine desire by most sections of the alcohol and retail industries to promote more responsible drinking, and I welcome the generally constructive approach that the industry has taken. However, we have made clear in the Government’s renewed alcohol strategy, Safe. Sensible. Social. The next steps in the National Alcohol Strategy, and we have made the industry very well aware, that we will not hesitate to introduce legislation if we are not satisfied with the industry’s efforts in ensuring that the majority of drinks labels are carrying the information required. The Government have indicated that they expect to see by the end of this year the majority of labels carrying health and other information. And, although it is not formally part of the agreement, we expect implementation to include information on alcohol and pregnancy. This will be part of our benchmark, as we have made clear to industry. A benchmark survey will be taken in February and a further survey in late winter. If it is considered that insufficient labels carry information, the Government will go ahead with their consultation on legislation before introducing that legislation. My noble friend Lord Mitchell and the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, referred to confusion about guidance to pregnant women. The new UK advice to women is that as a general rule pregnant women or women trying to conceive should avoid drinking alcohol. If they do choose to drink, to protect the baby they should not drink more than one to two units of alcohol once or twice a week and they should not get drunk. A short version of the revised message on pregnancy for inclusion on labels also agreed by the four UK chief medical officers was included in our February 2007 proposals to the alcohol industry for labelling. The message is, avoid alcohol if pregnant or trying to conceive. To date, NICE has consulted about its final guidance but I am confident that as both NICE and the four chief medical officers all base their evidence on the same scientific evidence, it is unlikely that there will be conflicting advice. I do not think that we can allow there to be conflicting advice. The noble Earl, Lord Listowel, rightly has strong concern about pregnant women who are dependent on alcohol and asked how many there are. In 2005, one in five—20 per cent—of women in the UK drank more than the recommended guidance and it is estimated that more than 6,000 children are born each year with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder. That is about 1 per cent of live births. This reflects the amount of alcohol consumed by pregnant women; that is, drinking at harmful levels, which includes those dependent on alcohol. However, an increasing number of women give up alcohol completely, as has the daughter of my noble friend. The noble Lord, Lord McColl, spoke of dosage and the link between a person’s weight and their tolerance—if I might put it like that—of alcohol. I shall give the noble Lord further details on that in writing, but I have to confess that, like his wife, I become talkative after one glass. He gave me advance warning, as he mentioned, about sulphites. The European Union, as part of its allergens labelling regulation for food and beverages, stipulated that all wine sold in the EU must include a statement that wine contains sulphites if there is any detectable presence of sulphites in the final product. Sulphite is one of 14 food allergens in the EU which have to be identified on the labelling of prepacked food. In the case of alcoholic drinks which do not have an ingredients list the rules require the presence of the allergen to be indicated with the prefix ““contains”” followed by the specific allergen, for example sulphites. I shall give the noble Lord further details on that. Much has been said about the need to examine the relationship between alcohol price, promotion, consumption and harm. Safe. Sensible. Social does, of course, include a commitment to carry out an independent review into this relationship. I am pleased to report to the House that a research team from the University of Sheffield has been selected to carry out this important work. The review will seek to establish, through a systematic review of the evidence, to what extent and in what circumstances price—including discounting, advertising and other forms of promotion—drives consumption of alcohol and all forms of alcohol-related harm. As part of this, the review team is asked to look at evidence on whether the current advertising restrictions are sufficient to protect children and young people, taking into account the work undertaken by Ofcom and the Advertising Standards Authority. The Government will use the review’s findings, which they expect to receive in July 2008, to assess whether particular types of discounting, linked to purchasing of bigger quantities, and promotional activities contribute to alcohol-related harm; and will, if necessary, consider the need for regulatory change in the future, following public consultation. Responsibility for the Alcohol Education and Research Council passed to the Department of Health at the beginning last year. For the past six years, it has been ably led by Dr Noel Olsen, during which time he oversaw an independent review of the council’s work and organisation and its transfer to the Department of Health. It is a testament to his chairmanship that the transfer of the council from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to the Department of Health passed off so smoothly. Unfortunately, his term of office comes to an end on 31 January. I am pleased to announce that Professor Robin Davidson has been appointed to succeed him as chairman of the Alcohol Education and Research Council for a period of three years effective from 1 February. The council has a strong reputation for delivering high quality, evidence-based research, and we look forward to working with him as we work to tackle the harms that are caused by alcohol misuse. Noble Lords will recall that we have debated issues surrounding misuse of alcohol on a number of occasions recently. I do not propose to rehearse those arguments, but I emphasise the Government’s commitment and determination to reducing the long-term harms caused by alcohol, both in dealing with specific harms such as foetal alcohol syndrome, as well as more generally seeking actively to encourage a culture that accepts sensible drinking as the norm and frowns on the excesses brought about by binge drinking. We see labelling as part of a wider programme of action by the Government and the alcohol industry to raise awareness of how much people drink and to encourage a sensible drinking culture, but labelling is not an answer of itself. The noble Lord, Lord Addington, asked about advertising. We will shortly be embarking on a sustained national £10 million communication campaign to challenge public tolerance of drunkenness and drinking that causes harm to health and to raise the public’s knowledge about units of alcohol and ensure that everyone has the information that they need to estimate how much they really drink. This has been an excellent debate, and I am grateful to my noble friend for his persistence in raising these important issues. It is clear that both the Government and this House want to ensure that information about pregnancy and alcohol consumption is on bottles. We differ slightly on the method of getting there, but get there we will.