In recent years, progress has been made to sell and promote alcohol responsibly within the United Kingdom with guidance from the Licensing Act (2003) and other policies implemented. These policies include Challenge 25 to prevent the underage sale of alcohol (Retail of Alcohol Standards Group, 2017); Early Morning Restriction Orders to prevent the sale of alcohol at specific times (Home Office, 2013); restrictions on the sale of alcohol to individuals who are intoxicated (Home Office, 2015); alcohol pricing restrictions (Home Office, 2017; Woodhouse, 2020); advertisement bans (Advertising Standards Authority, 2024) and for alcohol to only be sold in licensed premises (Licensing Act, 2003). 

These changes are paramount in contributing to the reduction of alcohol-related crime and having a positive impact on health and wellbeing. However, more needs to be done to support some of the most vulnerable members of our society, particularly those struggling with alcohol addiction.

Working with alcoholism frequently highlights the impact that the promotion of alcohol has on recovery. Comments commonly used when speaking about alcohol Is that it is everywhere and that you cannot escape it. The visual trigger of alcohol can have a detrimental effect on a person’s recovery and such triggers can cause relapses and result in wider societal issues such as health and crime related harms.

To put the promotion of alcohol into perspective, a person cannot meet one of their basic needs for survival, their physiological need for food (Maslow, 1943) without having to see or be around alcohol when food shopping. The main issue here is not that retailers sell alcohol, but the lack of control you have walking into a supermarket or shop and not knowing where or when you are going to see it, because there are limited guidelines on where alcohol should be placed in-store (Retail of Alcohol Standards Group, 2024) and so it is placed in various locations. This is a significant issue for people in recovery as current placements of alcohol in supermarkets/shops mean that the person does not have a choice whether they want to see alcohol or not. People can avoid going to pubs, but they cannot avoid going shopping, otherwise their basic needs cannot be met.

As a result of these issues, we propose that more restrictions are made around the promotion of alcohol in shops and supermarkets, the suggestions are as follows:

• Ban promoting alcohol at the entrance of the store, payment areas and promotional ends.
• Limit the promotion of alcohol to one aisle or area of the store, which should be clearly signposted, so people have the choice to avoid this area. 

In making these changes, it gives individuals more autonomy in their recovery, reducing the risk of relapse and therefore preventing further issues that can stem from this, such as criminal activity, homelessness, and health related issues, often resulting in hospital admission amongst many other risk factors (Black, 2021).

 

References:

Advertising Standards Authority. (2024). Alcohol. Retrieved from https://www.asa.org.uk/topic/alcohol.html#:~:text=Alcohol%20ads%20must%20not%20be,or%20over%2C%20and%20look%20it. 

Black, Dame C. (2021). Review of drugs part two: prevention, treatment, and recovery. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-drugs-phase-two-report/review-of-drugs-part-two-prevention-treatment-and-recovery 

Home Office. (2013). Alcohol Licensing. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/guidance/alcohol-licensing 

Home Office. (2015). 2010 to 2015 Government Policy: Alcohol Sales. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2010-to-2015-government-policy-alcohol-sales/2010-to-2015-government-policy-alcohol-sales 

Home Office. (2017). Guidance on banning the sale of alcohol below the cost of duty plus VAT. Retrieved from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a822ba540f0b6230269b356/2017-03-13_HO_Guidance_on_BBCS__1_.pdf 

Licensing Act. (2003). London: HMSO

Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370–396. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054346 

Retail of Alcohol Standards Group. (2017). About Challenge 25. Retrieved from https://rasg.org.uk/about/#:~:text=Challenge%2025%20is%20a%20retailing,they%20wish%20to%20buy%20alcohol. 

Retail of Alcohol Standards Group. (2024). Guidance for retailers in England on selling alcohol responsibly. Retrieved from https://rasg.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/010324_EnglandGuide.pdf 

Woodhouse, J. (2020). Alcohol: Minimum Pricing. Retrieved from https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN05021/SN05021.pdf