Wales pushes UK over alcohol issues
The Welsh Assembly will lobby to gain control over licensing and alcohol policy if the UK Government doesn't let it take a harder line.
A crackdown on pub promotions including happy hours could also be on the cards under the plan for Wales, the Assembly Government's Social Justice Minister Dr Brian Gibbons has told the Morning Advertiser.
The Assembly has written to the UK Government urging it to push for minimum pricing of alcohol, add a public health objective to the Licensing Act and consider bans on alcohol advertising.
Gibbons said: "Scotland has a certain amount of leeway in this, but we don't have any. Our position is to work with Westminster and make our views known. We would hope that Westminster can be persuaded to go down this route."
Asked if the Assembly had asked for new powers, Gibbons said "Not at the mo-ment". He said he's waiting for the Government to give a "definitive" response to the Sheffield University study into the link between alcohol promotion and harm.
"We want to be able to bring forward proposals within the Welsh context. If [the UK Government] feels that's not appropriate, the next option would be to ask if we can have the powers to look at this separately."
Although supermarkets are the main target of the attack on cheap sales, Gibbons indicated that on-trade promotions could also be included in a crackdown.
Asked if he believes happy hours should be banned, Gibbons said: "Yes, particularly if it's sold ridiculously cheaply and available as a loss leader."
Gibbons said the proposed ban on alcohol advertising would extend to promotional material within pubs.
More comforting for pubs, the minister said that if a public health test was added to the Licensing Act in
Wales, it wouldn't be applied retrospectively to existing venues.
Gibbons said: "There's a strong view that something needs to be done across all parties in the Assembly".
"This won't be a party-political issue."
