We believe there should be unit labelling on alcoholic beverages, as well as information at the point of sale. The Department of Health has proposed a standard message for bottles and cans which we think is good. The ideal label would include how many units the beverage contains and a health message saying “drinking to excess can harm your health”, or similar.

People who binge drink or drink excessively are more likely to be victims of violent crime, require emergency treatment or damage their health in the long term. Alcohol-related hospital admissions are going up at an extraordinary rate. We are consuming more and more alcohol and we have to look at tackling this now.

One of the issues is that while people recognise units, they don’t really understand them and their ability to recall the recommended guide-lines is very poor – only one in ten can remember. Placing the daily recommended amount for men and women on bottles contextualises drinking in a much better way.

The extent to which labels will regulate people’s drinking is up for discussion, but there is strong evidence that health warnings on cigarette packets did have an impact. The only problem was that people became desensitised to it which is why the messages change. You would have to work out different health messages on a rolling basis to stop them becoming routine.

There is a proportion of the population that are going to be completely unaffected by labelling. Very dependent drinkers and underage drinkers on the whole are not concerned by health consequences and will not be affected by labels. We would like to see labelling as part of an overall increase in education about the long-term health consequences of alcohol misuse. Labels are not a cureall: appropriate labelling, social marketing and targeted advertising go hand in hand.

It is true that unit measures are different across Europe but this can be overcome. If it means having separate labels for the UK then so be it. The practicality of labelling is a problem for the industry to resolve. It is part of responsible retailing to ensure that the labels we use in this country reflect the health problems that we have here. Alcohol problems cost the UK £25 billion a year in hospital admissions, policing, absenteeism and so on. It is only fair that the drink industry should pick up part of the tab.

There are health labels on just about all food and drink products – we provide more warnings on a cup of coffee, saying “contents hot”, than on an alcoholic beverage. You can look at the fat content of a ready-made meal or choose to ignore it. Without informing people about the potential dangers of alcohol, they cannot make the choice. If you are not drinking in a way which is damaging to your health or society then the label might be of little importance and you are free to ignore it. But there is no harm in giving people the information.

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