Health risks from alcohol: new guidelines
Read the full outcome
Detail of outcome
The government response to the consultation provides a summary of the 1019 responses received and how the guidelines have been revised as a result.
New guidelines from the 4 UK Chief Medical Officers provide the most up to date scientific information on low risk drinking to help people make informed decisions about their own drinking. The intention is not to prevent those who want to drink from doing so, nor to label everyone who drinks above the guidelines as a problem drinker. Published alongside the government response is:
- an addendum to the original Guideline Development Group report
- a qualitative research report on the draft guidelines
- minutes of the last GDG meeting on 5 May 2016
Feedback received
Detail of feedback received
Feedback received
There were 1,019 responses that answered some or all of the consultation questions.
The following information has been removed: names, phone numbers and personal addresses for anyone responding as a member of the public, an individual health or social care or other professional, or anyone who asked for their details to be withheld from publication.
In addition, where a response was sent on behalf of an organisation or business, we have removed the individual’s name but left on the record the respondent’s job title and business/organisation name unless it was requested to be withheld.
Campaign responses
The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) ran a campaign that encouraged people to provide responses to questions 1 to 4 of the consultation. In total, 785 email campaign responses were received. Examples of these standardised responses are provided in the ‘Campaign responses: sample answers’ document.
Original consultation
Consultation description
At the request of the UK Chief Medical Officers (CMOs), a group of experts were asked to evaluate evidence about the levels and types of health harm that alcohol can cause.
They have produced some recommendations about how health risks can be limited from drinking alcohol.
The UK CMOs considered and accepted the advice of the expert group and are consulting on the following 3 recommendations:
- a weekly guideline on regular drinking
- advice on single episodes of drinking
- a guideline on pregnancy and drinking
Documents
Updates to this page
Published 8 January 2016Last updated 25 August 2016 + show all updates
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Updated to include the government's response to the consultation and details of responses received.
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First published.