'Pubs face levy to pay price of alcohol misuse'

Licensed premises will have to pay a social responsibility levy towards the cost to society of alcohol misuse, after Labour backed the key plank of the SNP Government's Alcohol Bill. Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon finally got her way on the policy yesterday after being rebuffed over her plans to secure a minimum price per unit of alcohol and losing out on giving councils the powers locally to ban off-sales to under-21's - Herald​

Theresa May announced yesterday that she is pushing ahead with plans to ban retailers from selling drinks at below cost price, spelling the end for large discount offers which many have blamed for fuelling Britain's binge-drinking culture. Town halls will also be allowed to charge pubs and clubs an extra fee if they want to stay open late while the public will be handed greater powers to stop new venues opening or restrict existing hours. It comes as the Coalition Government sounds the death knell for Labour's 24-hour drinking regime - The Telegraph ​

A pub chain which failed to carry out gas safety checks at more than 400 of its premises put hundreds of lives at risk, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has said. Enterprise Inns plc was fined £315,000 by Liverpool Crown Court after one of its landlords died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Paul Lee, 41, was found dead at the Aintree Hotel in Bootle in 2007. The pub chain said it now worked closely with the HSE - BBC​

Light drinking in pregnancy does babies no harm in the long run, according to a substantial new study which challenges the government's advice that women should abstain completely for nine months. The study showed that the children of mothers who drank one or two units of alcohol a week during pregnancy have suffered no ill-effects by the time they are five. They do not have behavioural difficulties and nor are they behind in their intellectual development - The Guardian​