This report presents the results of the first phase of an investigation into the effects of pricing and promotion on alcohol consumption and related harm in the UK, commissioned through the Policy Research Programme, National Institute for Health Research, Department of Health. Recent research on alcohol policies has made it possible to rank policies and interventions according to their effectiveness in controlling excessive alcohol use and alcohol-related harm. The evidence suggests that there are a large range of effective strategies from which policy decision-makers can choose (Jahiel & Babor 2007, Stockwell et al 2006). However, it appears that some ineffective strategies tend to be particularly fashionable whereas strategies that are more effective can be unpopular (Brand et al, 2007). The English Government recently published the updated National Alcohol Strategy (Department of Health, 2007), which, among other things, proposes to tackle those pricing, marketing and promotional practices which may harm alcohol consumers, especially those most vulnerable to the negative effects of alcohol. A policy that leads to price increases of alcoholic beverages is likely to be one of the less popular policy choices, with both consumers and industry, and policies restricting promotional activity could potentially have significant detrimental influences on the alcohol industry. Therefore, it is imperative that such policy decisions are based on a sound evaluation of existing evidence (Phase 1 of our work) and pre-testing of the likely impacts of policy changes (Phase 2).