Government plans to "tinker" with Licensing Act

Police and local authorities are failing to use the Licensing Act properly and the government plans to "tinker" with the legislation, a senior Home Office official has revealed.

Mark Cooper, deputy head of the Alcohol and Strategy Unit at the Home Office, ruled out any suggestion the Licensing Act would be reversed, but revealed government plans to alter the Act.

Delivering the keynote speech to the Best Bar None (BBN) conference in Doncaster, he said: "From the government's perspective it's all there in the Licensing Act, but it's not being used as it should be.

"Some people use it well, other people don't. There are some really tough conditions that you can put on, and people aren't aware of that."

He said the government intended to revise police powers over crowd dispersal and confiscation of alcohol.

"We want to make sure everyone has the tools and powers to actually tackle alcohol-related crime," he said.

"We're not going to reinvent the wheel by removing the Licensing Act. What we want to do is make the wheel that will work, work."

Cooper also outlined Home Office plans to work with police and councils through a series of workshops and training sessions to highlight the use of the Act.

Earlier at the conference, Lord Rupert Redesdale, chairman of Best Bar None, said that attitudes to safety will decide the pubs that survive. "Quality will see pubs through the hard times that we are facing at the moment," he said. "Pubs making safety a priority will be the ones that people want to go to."

Meanwhile, winner of the Most Innovative Best Bar None Scheme Award was Bobby Smiljanic from Leicester BBN, who was presented with a cheque for £2,500, donated by the Home Office.