Lords licensing committee to hear from public health experts

The session on Tuesday 25 October will hear from those in areas of public health and medicine, and the impact that changing licensing restrictions have had on public life.

The committee will hear from Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance; Dr Adrian Boyle, Royal College of Emergency Medicine; Jeanelle de Gruchy, director of public health at Haringey Council and representing the Association of Directors of Public Health; and Professor Colin Drummond, chair of the faculty of addictions psychiatry at the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

The witnesses will be asked questions on:

• How should the freedom to drink alcohol be reconciled with the promotion of health and wellbeing?
• Scotland has decided to add public health to the objectives of its licensing laws – should England and Wales? If so, how?
• Should access to alcohol be further restricted in the interest of promoting public health?
• What can official data tell us about the relationship between licensing and public health?
• What are the merits of limiting access to types of alcohol, such as super strength, instead of where it can be bought?
• What are your views of taxation and price controls?
• How do the health risks differ from ‘on’ and ‘off’ sales?

The session can be watched live on Parliament TV or in Committee Room 3A within the Houses of Parliament at 10.40am on Tuesday 25 October.