During a policy roundtable discussion convened by the Society for the Study of Addiction (SSA), experts called for the government to develop a new national alcohol strategy that prioritises improvements in public health over commercial interests. People with expertise in research, clinical practice, public health, and lived experience gathered in Sheffield on 4 February 2026 to examine the current state of alcohol policy in the UK. The discussion began with participants highlighting the severe and often under-recognised health consequences associated with alcohol use. [1 hour 38 minutes]

Key themes from the discussion were: harms related to cancer and liver disease; the influence of the alcohol industry on policy; the need to change the narrative about people who experience harms from alcohol; the potential risks and benefits of looking to no- and low-alcohol (NoLo) drinks to reduce population harm; what works in alcohol policy; and potential windows of opportunity for effecting change.

0:00 Intro
03:07 Chapter one: The harms of alcohol
03:19 What problems does alcohol cause?
10:15 What are the most effective alcohol policy options?
12:50 Will health warning labels make a difference?
17:26 What do we know about the impact of minimum unit pricing?
20:40 How are different communities at different kinds of risk from alcohol?
22:07 What changes have we seen in the last 10–20 years?
26:53 Chapter two: What works in alcohol policy?
27:00 Has the debate around alcohol policy gone stale?
27:43 Are alcohol care teams offering something new?
31:25 Do alcohol-free and low-alcohol products offer benefits?
46:43 Chapter three: Barriers to an effective alcohol strategy
48:22 How does industry influence play out in practice?
55:24 Should alcohol be treated like tobacco?
1:03:12 How does the industry use legal threats?
1:06:30 Do the public want a 'nanny state'?
1:07:25 Is the health service having to deal with harm from alcohol when it could be doing other things?
1:10:43 How big a role does political ideology play in alcohol policy?
1:14:28 Chapter four: Reasons to be optimistic
1:15:40 What positive trends can you see at the moment that might lead us towards a better alcohol strategy?
1:27:00 What can different groups contribute to making change happen?
1:29:05 Could local public health workers play a bigger role?
1:31:15 Could people with lived experience contribute to policy discussions as well as research?
1:33:23 Final thoughts