Productivity

According to the Institute of Alcohol Studies, alcohol plays a part in and around work, both as a perceived antidote to the pressures of the modern workplace and as a way to socialise or network with clients and colleagues. However, drinking can reduce the productivity of the UK economy in a number of ways. This occurs through:

• Increased sickness absence: drinking 7+ (for women) or 14+ (for men) units per week raises the likelihood of absence from work through injury by 20 per cent.

• The inability to work (unemployment and early retirement).

• Premature deaths among economically active people (people of working age).

• Combined, these three factors account for a total alcohol-related output loss to the UK economy of up to £6.4bn.