MyShout

The necessity for a rational alcohol policy is finally getting through to ministers, says John Grogan

Most ministers have cleared their diaries for next Wednesday and subsequent days. Prime Minister Blair will head to the palace to resign shortly after his final Prime Minister's question time. It may well be that none of the ministers currently in charge of alcohol policy will be holding down the same jobs when the smoking ban is implemented on 1 July.

The key task in the coming months will be to persuade the new crop of ministers to build on the recently published and updated Safe. Sensible. Social. The next steps in the National Alcohol Strategy which, I think, reflects a new more balanced approach.

The hysteria which surrounded any debate about alcohol policy in the run up to the implementation of flexible licensing hours does appear to have subsided.

It was noticeable, for example, that Alcohol Concern's recent suggestion that parents should not introduce their children to alcohol in the home was widely portrayed as being well over the top.

The sustained campaign on irresponsible supermarket pricing and promotion of alcohol seems at last to be attracting the attention of ministers. The Alcohol Strategy unambiguously states that "the Government will also ensure that sufficient measures are in place to eliminate irresponsible promotions". Next year will be critical in this debate as ministers have promised a consultation on what measures to take following a review of the available evidence. The big four supermarkets need to abandon their contention that selling alcohol is just like selling baked beans or they risk getting left behind in the debate. It is worth noting that in Canada the Ministry of Health has recently published a similar document, Towards a Culture of Moderation.

The recommendations include: "setting taxes, mark-ups and implementing minimum prices consistent across Canada to ensure that prices do not fall to a level that encourages misuse and increased alcohol related harm... a competent body should review alcohol pricing throughout Canada, at least annually, and publish a report recommending increases where prices are not keeping pace with inflation."

Unless Tesco, Morrisons, Asda and Sainsbury's respond positively to the debate, so-called social reference pricing could be an idea whose time has come on both sides of the Atlantic.

The fact that Britain's Alcohol Strategy also took a very balanced view on plastic glasses (recommending that they are used in a targeted rather than a blanket fashion) is another indication that perhaps the pub industry is being listened to rather more in the corridors of power in Whitehall. On the other hand, it may well be that ministers are still investing too much faith in the power of labelling to affect behaviour. A young, poor pregnant woman is probably more likely to stop smoking as a result of advice from a Sure Start project worker than from the small print on a bottle.

Nevertheless, the way is still open for a much better dialogue between the industry and the new set of ministers than at any time during Labour's decade in power.