Three years ago, in July, my world was shattered when I lost my sister to alcoholism.

As I sorted through her affairs, I discovered she had been spending between £1,000 and £1,500 every month on alcohol through delivery apps like Just Eat, Uber Eats and Deliveroo. 

As alcoholism worsens, people often become more isolated, leave the house less, and their mental health declines. Delivery apps make it possible to continue drinking heavily without ever stepping outside.

There are safeguards in place for gambling addiction: through things like GamStop, vulnerable people can self-exclude and be blocked across multiple platforms.

But no equivalent system exists for alcohol delivery.

Even when accounts are deactivated, they can simply be reopened. There are no daily purchase limits, no effective monitoring, and no meaningful intervention when someone is ordering up to seven bottles of wine in a single day.

This is not an isolated case.

Since my sister died, I have been in contact with other families experiencing the same thing. One mother recently showed me an email chain where she asked Deliveroo to permanently terminate her vulnerable daughter’s account. They would only agree to a suspension which would automatically reinstate after 30 days, or if they were contacted by her daughter to have the suspension lifted. 

How is that protection?

Delivery drivers are also meant to refuse delivery to intoxicated individuals. Yet in my sister’s case, alcohol continued to be delivered, and in some instances drivers even misused her contact details to send unsolicited messages and gifts, a shocking abuse of access to a vulnerable woman.

These platforms operate with minimal oversight while facilitating the sale of a highly addictive substance to people in crisis.

Alcohol harm in the UK is a serious and growing public health issue. In 2023:

• 10,473 people died from alcohol-specific causes, the highest number on record.
• In England alone there were 22,644 deaths where alcohol was a contributing factor, a 21% increase since 2016.
• There were hundreds of thousands of hospital admissions where alcohol was the primary or secondary diagnosis. 

We cannot ignore the role that instant, on-demand alcohol delivery now plays in enabling addiction.

What Needs to Change

In an ideal world, alcohol would not be available on delivery apps at all.

But at the very least, the UK Government must introduce urgent safeguards to protect vulnerable people, including:

• A national self-exclusion scheme for alcohol delivery, similar to GamStop
  
  
• The ability for families to request long-term or permanent account blocks for vulnerable adults
  
  
• Spending and quantity limits on alcohol purchases through delivery
  
  
• Automated flagging and intervention systems when high-volume orders are detected
  
  
• Stronger enforcement of the rule that alcohol must not be delivered to intoxicated individuals
  
  
• Proper oversight and accountability for delivery platforms and drivers
  
  
• Alcohol is not groceries. It is not takeaway food. It is an addictive substance that contributes to thousands of deaths every year.

Technology has evolved. Regulation has not.

My Ask

I am calling on the UK Government to:

• Ban the sale of alcohol on delivery apps

OR

• Introduce immediate, robust regulation requiring strong protections to safeguard vulnerable people.

No family should have to discover that their loved one’s addiction was being enabled at the tap of an app.

Please sign and help push for change.