Gilmore "sympathises" with pubs

A leading anti-alcohol lobbyist today expressed sympathy for the plight of pubs and blamed the off-trade for an increase in hospital admissions relating to alcohol.

Professor Ian Gilmore, chairman of the Alcohol Health Alliance, told BBC 5 Live that it was "deep discounting" in off licences and supermarkets that was driving "heavy drinking".

"I do have some sympathy with the pubs and there are pubs going out of business every day," he added.

"If we can tackle the heavy discounting in supermarket and off licences that will be a very significant step forward."

He said the largest drivers of how much people drink is price and availability and "modest" increase in taxes had not been passed on to the shops and supermarkets.

"There is still is deep discounting of alcohol and that is one of the areas that we wish to see tackled," he added.

Gilmore was responding to figures revealing that hospital admissions relating to alcohol had risen 52 per cent in the 10 years to 2007. Of these admissions, 4,888 (nine per cent) involved patients under 18.

The NHS Information Centre report also showed a 20 per cent rise in the number of prescriptions issued for alcohol dependency between 2003 and 2007.

Seventy-two per cent of men and 57 per cent of women reported having a drink at least once a day in the week prior to the interview. Twelve per cent of men and seven per cent of women reported drinking on every day in the previous week.

The survey also revealed 69 per cent of people had heard of the government's guidelines on alcohol consumption, but of these 40 per cent did not know what the recommendations were.

Earlier this week the government launched a £6m awareness campaign aimed at educating people on how many units are in drinks.