4children (2012)

Over the Limit: The Truth about Families and Alcohol is a report by the fake-charity 4children(#288285) (of £12.8M income in the year ending 2011, over £9.5M came from the tax-payer in the form of grants from councils.)

Key findings

Netmum's survey

Ignoring the self-selecting nature of any free-for-all survey on the internet - especially on netmums - and considering only 176 people took part:

85% of people think families in the UK need more help with drugs and/or alcohol

85% of people shouldn't be concerned with how others live their lives apparently.

47% are worried about the effect of drugs and alcohol on their lives

If they're that worried, then they should do something about it. Themselves. Rather than expecting others, especially The Government, to do it for them.

29% of mothers, and 30% of their partners drink more alcohol a week than the recommended amount

Since the recommended amount was a number plucked out of thin air and the number differs depending on which country you ask, this means nothing.

41% of people know one or more families that need help with alcohol or drug use

... in their opinion. Presumably this is a subset of the 85% of busybodies mentioned above.

Comres survey

Marginally more reasonable than something from netmums, with a sample size of 575...

8% of parents in the UK, equating to around 2.6 million parents and at least 1.5 million households, say they have taken illegal drugs

No breakdown of what drugs were consumed. Non-prescription Temazepam? Cannabis? Crack cocaine or crystal meth?

7% of parents in the UK, equating to around 2.4 million parents and at least 1.3 million households, say they have taken legal highs

So that's a little irrelevant then.

Three times as many fathers (13%) as mothers (4%) say they drink every day

Four times as many of those in the richest households (social grouo[sic] AB) (11%) as the poorest households (social group DE) (3%) drink every day

Again, irrelevant.

And so on, and so on, with the vast majority of the conclusions coming from the Comres survey. They do, however, conveniently pull the

62% of children who were subject to care proceedings were from families with parental alcohol misuse

number from Adamson & Templeton (2012) - a report seemingly based on nothing but guesswork.