Consultation outcome

Health risks from alcohol: new guidelines

This consultation has concluded

Download 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

Campaign responses: sample answers

List of responses received

Response document 1

Response document 2

Response document 3

Response document 4

Response document 5

Response document 6

Response document 7

Response document 8

Response document 9

Response document 10

Response document 11

Response document 12

Response document 13

Response document 14

Response document 15

Response document 16

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

Summary

Seeks views on the UK Chief Medical Officers’ proposed new guidelines to limit the health risks associated with the consumption of alcohol.

This consultation ran from
to

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

Published 8 January 2016
Last updated 25 August 2016 + show all updates
  1. Updated to include the government's response to the consultation and details of responses received.

  2. First published.