Mandatory code on alcohol limps towards reality
31 January 2010
The government has set out the key conditions of its long-awaited mandatory code for alcohol retailers.
They are banning irresponsible promotions, ensuring that smaller measures and free tap water are always available, ensuring an age verification policy is in place and banning ‘dentist’s chairs’ where drink is poured directly into the mouths of customers. Tough
action on pricing, labelling and advertising, however – long called for
by health organisations – do not form part of the code. Breach of the conditions could mean loss of licence or a maximum £20,000 fine and/or six months in prison. The proposed conditions will now go before Parliament for approval, with those relating to irresponsible promotions like ‘women drink free’ or ‘all you can drink for £10’, free tap water and the ‘dentists chair’ scheduled to be introduced on 6 April. The age verification and smaller measures conditions will be introduced in October to give retailers time to prepare. More than 7,000 people responded to the consultation on the code, says the Home Office.
New powers for local authorities have also come into effect to make it quicker and easier to call for a review to restrict or remove a licence without having to wait for the police or local residents to complain. ‘Alcohol-related crime costs the UK billions of pounds every year and while the vast majority of retailers are responsible, a minority continue to run irresponsible promotions which fuel the excessive drinking that leads to alcohol-related crime and disorder,’ said home secretary Alan Johnson.
The Royal College of Nursing said that minimum pricing and tighter regulations on labelling and advertising should have formed part of the code. ‘Every day, frontline nurses see the devastating consequences of drinking on patients’ physical and psychological health,’ said chief executive Dr Peter Carter. Alcohol Concern also called for ‘decisive action’ on the issue of price. ‘We need a minimum price per unit of alcohol to eradicate irresponsible sales in supermarkets as well as pubs and bars,’ said chief executive Don Shenker. ‘The country’s alcohol misuse has reached a level the government should be ashamed of. Giving the alcohol industry the upper hand is a catastrophe for the nation’s health.’ However, even in a watered down form the code has angered sections of the drinks trade, with the British Beer and Pub Association calling the measures ‘pub-centric’ and ‘lopsided and unbalanced’, as almost 70 per cent of alcohol is now sold through supermarkets. ‘This is not the time for the Home Office to be burying business in yet more unnecessary red tape,’ said chief executive Brigid Simmonds. ‘All the powers needed to deal with problem premises already exist. The trouble is poor enforcement of current laws. Just adding to that pile is unhelpful.’
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