The abstinence movement appears to have struck a body blow in its war against alcohol.
Just days after a raft of medical experts wrote to Keir Starmer demanding the government mandate cancer warnings on all alcoholic drinks packaging, it now appears the Department for Health & Social Care is mulling a ban on all forms of booze advertising in a bid to tackle alcohol-related harm.
In a small mercy, health secretary Wes Streeting has reportedly decided against implementing the full range of demands from the anti-alcohol brigade, including minimum unit pricing and placing restrictions on selling hours for retailers and supermarkets.
But a full or partial ban on advertising remains under consideration, according to a leaked version of the NHS 10-year Health Plan, which is due to be released next week.
Such a move could signal a death knell for Britain’s already beleaguered booze industry.
Booze suppliers under the cosh
Consumption is already on the wane across most booze categories, The Grocer’s Britain’s Biggest Alcohol Brands Report 2025 will show later this week. Consumers are cutting back on their intake amid budget and health fears. Plus there’s Gen Z’s widely reported – if slightly overstated – indifference towards ‘the session’.
If that wasn’t bad enough, suppliers also remain under the cosh from stubborn inflation on input costs, duty hikes that penalise stronger drinks and EPR packaging fees that disproportionately hit wine and spirits sold in glass bottles.
And now, it seems alcohol brands are to join tobacco businesses in being unable to advertise their wares on television, online, across the high street and potentially even within the very retailers in which they are sold.
The move – if it proves to be true – feels a disproportionate response to tackle the issue of alcohol dependence, which although clearly an issue, affects just 14 out of every 1,000 adults in the UK (according to the government’s own figures). The majority of consumers are moderate drinkers, and stick to the chief medical officer’s guidance to drink no more than 14 units a week.
The cost of alcohol-related harm
Yes, alcohol misuse currently costs the NHS around £3.5bn per year in England. And yes, the associated social and economic harm costs society an estimated £21bn per year. These are large, shameful numbers and ones from which the booze industry must not shy away.
More must be done – both by government and producers – to tackle the issue of alcoholism and the harm it does to society at large.
But banning advertising, alongside introducing cancer labels on packaging, would demonise alcohol consumption to the extreme. It’s not fair on suppliers that act responsibly, and it’s certainly not fair on the majority of drinkers that consume in moderation.
Plus, any benefit to the NHS needs to be weighted against the associated economic fallout that would result from such a ban. Many suppliers are already on the edge, just about surviving after a half decade more challenging than any in living memory. Further setbacks such as this will send many tumbling over the precipice.
With an estimated 800,000 people in the UK reliant on the alcohol industry for their livelihood, one hopes Chancellor Rachel Reeves is making the positive case for this needlessly draconian and economically illiterate proposal to be reconsidered.
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