Chaos ahead for drinks industry as MPs want 'French law' here

The Commons committee, seeking to reduce the 6,500 deaths a year caused by drinking, called for tough curbs on alcohol advertising and a possible ban on drinks companies sponsoring sporting and cultural events.

The committee said drinks firms should do more to tackle the damage their products cause - or risk being seen as "paying only lip service" to the need to reduce the "insidious and pervasive" health effects of drinking too much.

These effects cost the NHS more than £3 billion a year, said the MPs.

Existing restrictions on TV advertising should be applied more widely, especially in cinemas, to stop ads encouraging under-18s to drink.

The cross-party group of MPs recommended "serious consideration" be given to cutting to 10% the part of a film's audience that can be under-18 and still allow alcohol to be advertised - or to prohibiting alcohol advertising in cinemas altogether except when a film has an 18 certificate.

The industry's spokespeople also take a caning. "They often appear to argue that advertising messages have no effect on public attitudes to alcohol or on consumption," say the MPs. "We believe this argument is implausible."

The MPs welcome the industry's willingness to address alcohol-related harm, especially through the "responsibility deal" under which drink and food firms pledge to tackle alcohol misuse and obesity in return for avoiding any new regulation.

But producers "aren't entitled to brownie points" for their involvement, said Stephen Dorrell, the committee's chairman and health secretary under John Major.

"It's simply part of the responsibility of being in a free society . They should be interested in the fact that six and a half thousand deaths a year are related to alcohol consumption, and should be doing something to bring those deaths down," said Dorrell.

The came the plea for a serious look at introducing a version of the Loi Évin, passed in France in 1991. The MPs want Public Health England, the new government agency, to commission a study of the law's impact on public health in France, and also an independent evaluation of the responsibility deal.

The MPs welcomed the government's acceptance of minimum unit pricing of alcohol, backed by many medical bodies. With Scotland setting the price at 50p a unit , "practical arguments" favour the same price in England to stop a cross-border drinks trade.

The British Medical Association last night backed a UK equivalent of the Loi Évin .

Sir Ian Gilmore, the Royal College of Physicians' adviser on alcohol, welcomed measures such as those in the loi Évin but said more action was needed to "tackle the growing problem of marketing through digital, online and social media, to reduce children and young people's exposure".

Henry Ashworth, chief executive of the industry-funded Portman Group, denied drink ads were irresponsible.

"It is entirely prohibited for alcohol to be marketed or targeted at under 18s and this is strictly enforced through industry codes of practice."

He regretted the committee had not recognised the value of the industry's pledge to remove 1bn of the 54bn units of alcohol sold every year by introducing more lower-strength wines and beers by 2015.

The Advertising Association was brutal: "The committee's call for ad restrictions doesn't add up. We already know the suggested measures don't work. Eight years after its introduction, the French parliament and anti-alcohol campaigners labelled the loi Évin 'ineffective' and 'weak' in reducing high-risk drinking," said tha AA in a statement.

"Strong UK regulation already demands that advertising avoids appealing to under-18s and our exposure rules are strict and effective. "Of course problems remain, but government figures show consumption, harmful drinking and binge-drinking are all in decline. People in ads only ever drink responsibly, more of us are following their lead", it added.