Rule Britannia- Home Office consults on new licensing rules

Home Office (UK) published a consultation paper on tackling the alarming increase in alcohol influenced crime. Home Office has recently taken responsibility for licensing and enforcement from Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Theresa May (Home Secretary) said, ‘ The benefits promised by the 24 hour drinking ‘café culture' have failed to materialise, and in its place we have seen an increase in the number of alcohol-related incidents and drink-fuelled crime and disor der'

Since 2003, when the licensing allowing 24 hours sell of alcohol was introduced, an increase in violence and alcohol abuse has been observed. It was hoped that England would adopt more continental ‘café culture' and the law would put an end to the rush of drunks on the streets after 11:30pm.

The effects of introducing the around the clock licensing proved disastrous, with the increase of violent drink related assaults by 64,000 only in the first year. Problems often relate to the cumulative effect of operation of a number of premises in close proximity which are open late, resulting in littering, fighting and other unacceptable behaviour till early hours of the morning.

As highlighted by the Home Office yesterday (28 July 2010) last year fifth of all reported violent incidents took place in or around a pub or club, and almost two-thirds of these happened at night. The total cost of alcohol fuelled crime and disorder to the taxpayer is estimated to be as much as 13 billion (GBP). In addition, the deaths caused by drink drivers are at its highest in the last 30 years. Disorder caused by excessive alcohol consumption is an increasing challenge for police forces. Alcohol is attributed to the half of violent crimes committed each year and almost a quarter of the 400 million (GBP) overtime budget is spent on extra late night hours.

The new measures proposed by the Home Officer include:
- giving local council and the police greater powers and flexibility over the control of opening hours
- introduction of a late- night levy on premises which stay open in order to collect more funds on extra policing
- doubling the fine (to 20,000 GBP) for those found consistently selling alcohol to underage
- increasing licence fees to cover the growing costs linked to enforcement - ban on below cost price sell of alcohol

However, it is worth noting that the definition of below cost price is crucial here, as it is difficult to obtain detailed information about the cost price of alcohol. A precise definition ought to include the cost of production, marketing, and distribution, and tax on top of that. Currently, not all of this information is shared by economic operators with the public.

All these measures hope to reverse the catastrophic alcohol policy failures that we are observing, not only in the UK but all across Europe, with the decision to exempt alcohol from obligation to inform customers of its content (What is not on the bottle- Eurocare response to the EP vote) being the most recent one.

Furthermore, the Coalition Government has announced a review of pricing and taxation which will be published in the autumn. The action on alcohol policy as outlined in the Programme for Government was:
- we will bank the sale of alcohol below cost price
- we will review alcohol taxation and pricing to ensure it tackles binge drinking (…)
- we will overhaul the Licensing Act to give local authorities and the police much stronger powers (…)
- we will allow councils and the police to shut down permanently ant shop or bar found to be persistently selling alcohol to children
- we will double the maximum fine for underage alcohol sales to 20,000
- we will permit local councils to charge more for late night licences to pay for additional policing

For the Home Office press release please click here

For the consultation paper-Rebalancing the Licensing Act - a consultation on empowering individuals, families and local communities to shape and determine local licensing please click here

To contact Eurocare members in the UK please follow the links:
Alcohol Concern
Institute of Alcohol Studies