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The cost of alcohol misuse has been revealed in new research which shows that £27 billion a year is spent on England on the health and social harms of drinking.
The research, which found the extra burden on the NHS, social services, the criminal justice system and the labor market cost at least 37% more than in 2003, when a Cabinet Office benchmarking study estimated costs between £18.5bn and £20bn.
Using the same methodologyThe Institute for Alcohol Studies (IAS) has estimated that alcohol costs the health service £4.9 billion a year, of which more than £3 billion is from alcohol-related emergency visits and hospital admissions.
Official figures published in April showed that a record 10,048 people died in 2022 from alcohol-specific causes – the highest level since records began in 2001. Drinking is linked to a host of health conditions, including seven types of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, cirrhosis, stroke and digestive problems.
Alcohol also has a much wider impact on individuals and society. The IAS study put the cost of alcohol to the criminal justice system at £14.6 billion, with more than 4 million alcohol-related offences. Social services spend nearly £3 billion a year dealing with the impact of drinking on individuals and families.
In the wider economy, the study estimates that £1bn is lost to unemployment due to alcohol use and nearly £4bn to lost productivity.
The cost to society is not felt evenly, the IAS found, with the per capita impact of drinking highest in the North East and lowest in the South West.
For the whole population, the average cost per head of alcohol harm is £485 per year, rising to £562 per year for people living in the North East.
The Commons health and social care select committee is due to hear evidence on the harms of alcohol next week as part of its inquiry into prevent ill health from drinking, smoking, drugs and gambling.
Dr Catherine Severy, chief executive of the IAS, said the data was compelling. “As a country, we cannot afford to sit back and do nothing. The government needs to develop a comprehensive alcohol strategy to tackle this growing harm, which would have the knock-on effect of reducing the financial burden as well,” she said.
In response to the figures, clinicians and public health experts reiterated the need to make alcohol more expensive and harder for younger people to buy, and to make it easier for local authorities to control its availability in their areas.
Dr Sarah Clarke, President of the Royal College of Physicians, said: “Urgent action is needed to tackle the harm caused by alcohol. The cost to individuals and society is enormous and growing year by year. We are calling for increased duty on alcohol, health warnings and nutritional information on labels and restrictions on alcohol marketing. This will significantly improve public health and help reduce the strain on the NHS workforce, which is currently facing huge demand.
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William Roberts, Chief Executive of the Royal Society for Public Hello, said alcohol remains one of the biggest risk factors for preventable disease. “There are a range of public health interventions that can help minimize alcohol-related harm. These include measures such as a minimum unit price and empowering local leaders to limit advertising,” he said.
Alice Wiseman, vice president of the Association of Public Health Directors, also called for minimum unit prices and tighter regulations. “The huge marketing machine of the alcohol industry needs to be much more tightly regulated so that we are no longer bombarded with the message that alcohol is a safe, attractive product,” she said. “What is needed now is for the Government to take action and develop a new alcohol strategy so that we can reduce the rising and unacceptable costs of alcohol harm.”
Matt Lambert, chief executive of the Portman Group, which represents the UK alcohol industry, said the IAS failed to take into account the significant direct economic contribution of the alcohol industry or the wider economic and social benefits of moderate and responsible alcohol consumption in society.
“We fully recognize the impact that alcohol misuse has on health, social and policing services, which is why the industry remains committed to promoting moderate drinking and supporting partnerships that tackle harm at a local level, including anti-social behavior and under-age drinking “, he said. “It’s also important to remember that a growing majority in the UK are drinking responsibly and harms such as binge drinking, alcohol-related crime and drink-driving have fallen significantly over the last decade.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “Through our 10-year drug strategy, backed by £532 million, we are helping up to 54,500 more people get support for alcohol and drugs and also funding specialist teams to alcohol treatment in hospitals in England with the highest levels of alcohol harm and socio-economic deprivation.
“Last August, the Government also introduced reforms to alcohol tax, which mean products are taxed directly in proportion to their alcohol content, and we are reviewing official estimates of the cost of alcohol harm to support us in our efforts to tackle alcohol-related harm.’
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