Framing the alcohol policy debate: industry actors and the regulation of the UK beverage alcohol market

Abstract

This article explores alcohol industry attempts to frame the debate about pricing and promotions policy in the United Kingdom. Framing theory, it is argued, offers us important insights into the dynamics of the policymaking process as a contest between competing conceptualizations of both problems and solutions. Drawing on a documentary analysis and a series of interviews with policymakers, public health advocates and alcohol industry actors, it argues that industry actors framed the policy debate in ways which were consistent with their underlying commercial interests. A clear challenge was posed to the industry by the shift towards whole-population interventions favored by the Scottish government. This led to a reassertion of the industry frame in which alcohol-related harm is limited to a small minority of the population and which advocates targeted interventions.

Implementing a Public Health Objective for Alcohol Premises Licensing in Scotland: A Qualitative Study of Strategies, Values, and Perceptions of Evidence

“…The nature of public health involvement in licensing, therefore, is, and ought to be, one of advocacy—aiming to build relationships with allies and licensing actors, and be useful to those actors—while engaging in gentle attempts to make health considerations part of the routine practice of licensing [34]. This is a form of lobbying; not the overt or loud campaigning the term may bring to mind for some, but similar to that undertaken by the alcohol industry with the United Kingdom government over many years [69,70,71], seemingly to considerable effect [72], though with markedly different goals.…”

Industry Actors, Think Tanks, and Alcohol Policy in the United Kingdom

“…6–8 The decision to halt implementation of MUP, as with the delay in implementing plain packaging for tobacco products, brought accusations that the government had been unduly influenced by industry actors, including David Cameron’s election strategist Lynton Crosby, whose consultancy works on behalf of the tobacco and alcohol industries. 9 …”

Under the influence

“…38 The prime minister, reported the Telegraph, channel of choice for Conservative Party leaks, was facing opposition from some senior Tory and Liberal Democrat colleagues who saw the measure as "illiberal." As a result, "even though Mr Cameron has publicly backed the policy," it was "still possible that the price per unit could be revised downwards or scrapped entirely and replaced with voluntary agreements with industry."…”