Alcohol strategy is short on targets and ambitions, MPs told

The government’s alcohol strategy to tackle binge drinking and introduce a minimum unit price for alcohol lacks targets and is not ambitious enough, say alcohol experts.

Witnesses at the first oral evidence session of the parliamentary health select committee’s new inquiry into the government’s alcohol plans said the government’s strategy launched last month was welcome in many ways but did not go far enough.

At the evidence session on 17 April, alcohol experts said there was too little emphasis in the strategy on the health impacts of alcohol and how treatment for people with a drinking problem can be improved.

Under the alcohol strategy, published last month by the Home Office, there are plans to introduce a minimum unit …