Alcohol Health Alliance Advocacy Project

Background Alcohol use is the biggest risk factor attributable to early mortality, ill-health and disability for people aged 15 to 49 and the fifth biggest risk-factor across all ages.

Playing a causal role in more than 200 different diseases and injuries, alcohol is linked to seven cancers, including two of the most common (breast and bowel).

The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated this, with UK alcohol-specific deaths increasing by 27% between 2019-2021. High-risk drinking has increased from around one in four adults in 2019, to one in three today.

Modelling around the impact of these changes has estimated that if alcohol use does not return to pre-pandemic levels, there could be up to 18,785 additional cases of cancer linked to alcohol by 2035, widening inequalities further, and costing the NHS an additional £519 million to treat.

Aims In line with Cancer Research UK’s policy priorities, we are calling for an independent review into alcohol harm to inform a comprehensive evidence-based alcohol strategy including ambitious policies to restrict the affordability, availability and promotion of alcohol. We will prioritise advocacy work on policies to reduce the affordability of alcohol and restrict alcohol marketing.

Our aim is for the Government to recognise that effective alcohol policies are needed, workable and wanted.

Methods To get our issues on the agenda in Parliament, we work with Parliamentarians to raise alcohol harm in debates, ask questions, table amendments, and communicate with Ministers. We also prepare briefings and distribute relevant new research. We manage a large campaigners’ network, encouraging individuals to contact their local MPs on alcohol issues.

We secure local and national media coverage and develop online and social content, often in cooperation with other AHA members.

We keep abreast of research and policy developments, including via opinion polling, and make information about alcohol harm accessible to lay audiences via briefings and reports that are published on our website.

Value The AHA is able to campaign on alcohol issues and pursue CRUK policy objectives at a time when CRUK is not resourced to do so in-house.

Supporting this programme of work will enable CRUK to further its goals in cancer prevention and tackling health inequalities.