According to a recent report from the Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS), Britons are consuming 50 per cent more alcohol per capita than in 1970 whereas in France and Italy, alcohol consumption figures have more than halved.

The AMS was established in 1998 and has 750 fellows comprising the UK’s leading medical scientists from hospitals, academia, industry and public service.

The Calling Time report, published on 3 March, also claimed that the rise in alcohol consumption is strongly linked to a similarly large rise in crime, violence and disease, with the cost of alcohol-related crime alone now estimated at over £7bn.

Heavy drinking has contributed to a rise in a multitude of health problems including cirrhosis of the liver increasing nine times among young people.

The report has called for the government to make alcohol more expensive and less available, with tax increases aimed at doubling the cost of alcoholic drinks plus a reduction in the amount of alcohol that ‘booze cruise’ travellers can bring back into the UK.

Although the AMS explained that the problem is most acute among young men, the number of women in the 16 to 24 age bracket who drink ‘unsafe’ amounts has almost doubled since 1988. Meanwhile, excessive drinking is currently implicated in around 33,000 deaths each year – and that figure is rising.

As the AMS study concluded: “There is compelling evidence, from many populations, that overall level of alcohol consumption is linked with the prevalence of heavy drinking and the changes in per capita consumption are associated with changes in the level of alcohol related harm.

“A strategic programme is now needed to curb the nation’s escalating level of drinking in the interests of both individual and public health.

“The country has reached a point where it is necessary and urgent to call time on runaway alcohol consumption.” Details: www.acmedsci.ac.uk