Minister renews responsible drinking culture call

The Government wants to foster a change of culture to encourage responsible drinking in the same way that it introduced seatbelts in the 1980s, according to a leading Home Office minister.

Phil Woolas, Minister of State for Borders and Immigration, told attendees at a parliamentary reception for the Best Bar None (BBN) award scheme winners that the issue of changing our drinking culture was "mission critical" for the government.

Along with the BBN winners, he told other MPs, including Licensing Minister Gerry Sutcliffe and assistant government whip Dawn Butler, as well as industry leaders that he welcomed the work of the scheme.

Speaking at the event, Woolas said: "The work that has been done is extremely important for your industry and extremely important to our country.

"The idea of responsible drinking is mission critical, as they say in government. What we are trying to foster is a change of culture."

Drawing a parallel to the introduction of seatbelts in cars and anti-drink driving legislation he added: "What you are doing with the scheme is changing that culture, so that we can show that it is a possibility to enjoy drink in a responsible way.

"This shows that the scheme is working."

BBN has more than 85 schemes across the country and is designed to develop good relationships between authorities and the licensed trade.

It was initially developed by the Manchester City Centre Safe project to address alcohol related crime and improve the night-time environment.

Neil Robertson, the new British Institute of Innkeeping (BII) chief executive took up the head role at the BBN in January this year.