Trade unites against Ofbooze' regulators
Officials would rank pubs on social responsibility'
by Dizziana Rossi
The Home Office wants pubs and drinks companies to fund a new regulatory body dubbed Ofbooze to monitor social responsibility in the trade.
The Home Office "code of practice" plan, leaked to the Morning Advertiser, has sparked fury among trade leaders, who held an emergency meeting at the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) offices last Thursday.
The document details plans to set up an independent body funded by the industry to "accredit" pubs that comply with a checklist of social responsibility measures. Pubs would be ranked against other pubs in a Corporate Social Responsibility Index. The new regulatory body would have the power to challenge the way businesses produce and sell alcohol a move that would seem to usurp the existing role of the Portman Group.
Mark Hastings, BBPA director of communications, said: "The idea that the industry needs a new independent, regulatory body is entirely disproportionate to what actually takes place out there."
"The position of the industry is that it is united and clear inits opposition to the proposed accreditation body, a new regulatory body, and the funding issue we have no idea what this would cost. We can't make any progress on other issues until the issue of the accreditation body and its funding is resolved to the industry's satisfaction that is, removed."
The document, which is split into sections for producers and retailers, covers all areas pertaining to the production and sale of alcohol.
Under the retailers section are guidelines on advertising and marketing, alcohol promotions, and customer care.
Hastings picked up on a number of errors in the proposal document, revealing the extent of the Home Office's ignorance of how the trade works.
He said: "The document talks about the Ofcom rules on the naming, packaging and marketing of alcoholic drinks but anybody who knows anything about the industry knows that that is the job of the Portman Group.
"It also sets up the expectation that alcoholic producers should move into the soft drink market."
The Home Office document has been drawn up in the wake of the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy, which mentioned that the alcohol industry should fund social responsibility schemes. The leaked Home Office plan would seem to mean an even bigger financial contribution from the pub and drinks industry than the £20m to £25m that industry is expecting to contribute to social responsibility programmes.
Hastings added: "Many other Government departments will be somewhat surprised that the Home Office is trying to take over their roles and responsibilities: regulating all alcohol products which is the job of Defra [Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs]; licensing which is DCMS [Department for Culture, Media & Sport]; competition which is the DTI [Department of Trade & Industry]; and imposing new taxes which is the role of the Treasury."
A leading industry figure also blasted the proposals, which he said were part of the Home Office's strategy to "exaggerate the problem of binge drinking to create additional stealth taxes".
He said: "The Government is asking for an additional £20m voluntary levy to combat alcohol-related disorder, when the industry already pays £6bn per year in tax on beer. The Home Office is now trying to reinvent what the Portman Group already does very effectively."
A spokesman for the Home Office said: "The idea of the code of practice was set up in the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy. There were a number of recommendations, one of which was a social responsibility scheme where retailers and producers would be encouraged to contribute to a fund for alcohol misuse. This is still under consultation at the moment."
