During a policy roundtable discussion convened by the Society for the Study of Addiction (SSA), experts called for the government to develop a new national alcohol strategy that prioritises improvements in public health over commercial interests.
People with expertise in research, clinical practice, public health, and lived experience gathered in Sheffield on 4 February 2026 to examine the current state of alcohol policy in the UK. The discussion began with participants highlighting the severe and often under-recognised health consequences associated with alcohol use.
Dr Gautam Mehta, a hepatologist who treats people with alcohol-related liver disease, revealed that many of his patients only receive a diagnosis when their condition has already reached a critical stage. “Most people don’t know they have liver disease until they have a severe, catastrophic complication. About 70% of people in hospital haven’t had a previous incident event or a diagnosis of liver disease. Of those, a quarter will die within a matter of months.”
Professor Julia Sinclair, Professor of Addiction Psychiatry at the University of Southampton, said, “Where we’re seeing most of the problems within the NHS now is not with people presenting for treatment [for alcohol dependence], it’s in people are who required to go into a general hospital or are going to see their GP, but the problem underlying that is their alcohol consumption.”
Lived experience advocate, Aunee Bhogaita, said that social norms around alcohol can obscure harm and delay recognition of drinking problems. “It’s still abnormal to not drink. It’s still not seen as a dangerous, addictive substance.” Director of Public Health, Alice Wiseman MBE, added that there is a prevailing narrative that alcohol-related harm is an ‘individual problem’ experienced by people who have failed to manage their alcohol consumption. “That’s a narrative that’s been developed by the alcohol industry: that it’s ‘irresponsible drinkers’. So therefore, if you can’t manage this addictive product, then you are somehow irresponsible.”
The framing of alcohol-related harm as an individual problem is also evident in policymaking at a local and national level, according to Clive Henn, former policy advisor and public health expert. “Any alcohol policies at the moment, or reference to alcohol – the 10 Year Health Plan for England, the Men’s Health Strategy – they talk about it from an industry perspective, in the sense that it’s an ‘individual problem’”.
Professor John Holmes, Director of the Sheffield Addictions Research Group, described some of the ways that the alcohol industry is involved in shaping responses to alcohol-related harm in policy. “We know that the industry puts a lot of effort into controlling alcohol policy and influencing the way it works through its building of coalitions, its management of information and evidence and the debate, its relationships with the government, and then at times, ‘bringing in the big guns’ – bringing in legal threats, attacking evidence, withdrawing cooperation.”
Dr Peter Rice, Chair of the Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS), said that the industry can often appear keen to address alcohol-related harms – albeit a narrow range of harms. Recalling conversations with the alcohol industry, he said: “They’ll talk to you about underage drinking. They’ll talk to you about drink-driving. And they’ll talk to you about drinking in pregnancy. They won’t talk to you about men. They won’t mention chronic health harms”.
Rosanna O’Connor, Chair of Collective Voice, suggested that alcohol policy could learn from tobacco control, where stronger safeguards limit industry involvement in policymaking: “[We] need something like the framework for tobacco control for alcohol. Without it, we’ll be forever doomed with influence – it’s insidious.”
Reflecting on the success of the policy roundtable discussion, the SSA’s Vice President Dr Sarah Welch said, “The heart of our mission is to bring scientific understanding of addictive products and behaviours into policy and practice. The point is to make a difference to people’s lives, and policy and practice is where that happens. Some of the people who have really important things to say often don’t have the opportunity to come together in the same spaces.”
The policy roundtable discussion is now available to watch online. The SSA hopes it will serve as a resource for informing future alcohol policy discussions.
Note to editors
- The SSA is the UK’s leading addiction science charity. It is committed to advancing the scientific understanding of addiction and helping to facilitate the use of research in policy and practice.
- For media enquiries, please contact the SSA’s Head of Communications, Natalie Davies.
- See more content about the policy roundtable discussion on the SSA’s YouTube channel.
