The Government should change direction if it is to have any hope of stemming the booze culture, the British Medical Association has said.

It said that the Government’s policies of liberalisation had failed, and called for statutory controls on price and labelling, lower drink-drive limits, higher alcohol taxes and better police enforcement.

In encouraging voluntary codes, relaxing licensing laws and failing to enforce the law on underage drinking, the Government had been hand-in-glove with the alcohol industry, the BMA said in a new report.

“The levels of alcohol-related disorder, crime, morbidity and premature mortality in the UK are unacceptably high,” Sir Charles George, chairman of the BMA’s board of science, said.

“The strategy to reduce alcohol-related harm in the UK has seen an overreliance on popular but ineffective policies, as well as liberalisation of the major drivers of alcohol consumption: availability and price,” he added.

The BMA wants to see sales promotions such as loss-leaders in supermarkets and happy hours in pubs and bars curtailed by law. It denied that its policies were “killjoy”, and argued that moderate drinkers must accept a hit in the pocket in the interests of protecting the immoderate.

“It is a public health issue,” said Vivienne Nathanson, the BMA’s head of ethics and science. “There are a large number of people drinking at a level that can damage their health. Many others, who are not drinking excessively, would be willing to pay more to protect public health.”

Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the BMA Council, said that price rises had to be seen as part of a package, not as the whole answer. “But some increase in price will help,” he said.

Tesco, Britain’s biggest supermarket chain, said that if alcohol prices were to be increased, new laws were needed. If supermarkets agreed among themselves to raise prices they would be in breach of competition rules. Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Tesco’s executive director for corporate and legal affairs, said that any changes must apply to all retailers, or shoppers would simply go to cheaper outlets. “All shops that sell alcohol need to act together – and this is where we are being held back by the law,” she said. “The only safe solution is for the Government to initiate and lead these discussions.”

Dawn Primarolo, the Public Health Minister, welcomed Tesco’s stance and said that the Government had ordered a review into alcohol prices and their impact on drink problems.

“It is vital that we understand which supermarket practices really impact on harmful drinking and which are simply helping hard-pressed family budgets,” she said.

The BMA report said that reviews were not necessary. The evidence that higher prices cut consumption was already well established. The report also called for statutory rules on labelling, clearly stating alcohol content in units, recommended guidelines and a warning message that exceeding the guideline may cause harm.

“If you ask how many units there are in a bottle of wine, most people don’t know,” Professor Nathanson said. “In fact, there are three units in a single large 250ml glass. People are not being given the information to help them make the right decision.”

The BMA also wants the legal driving limit to be reduced from 80mg per 100ml of blood to 50mg. On the Continent, it points out, 22 countries already have the lower limit and only five, including Britain, the higher one.

Alcohol-related deaths have risen steadily since 1991, but show evidence of flattening off in the past few years. The number of drunken offenders peaked in the late 1970s and have fallen rapidly since, but this probably relates more to changes in police activity than to actual drunkenness.

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