Labour set to support licensing shake-up
Shadow Home Secretary Ed Balls has indicated Labour will support police and councils getting "extra powers" as part of the licensing regime shake-up.
During a debate on the proposed changes in the Commons this week, Balls said plans would have to be looked at "in detail", but added: "We will support extra powers to enable local communities and the police to keep public order to ensure that people can enjoy a night out in a safe and secure manner."
The coalition government has billed the changes - which include giving councils the power to introduce a late-night levy and allowing anyone to complain about a licence - as a "tearing up" of the Licensing Act.
But Balls argued the measures, in the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill, "build upon" rather that reverse Labour's licensing reforms.
Vernon Coaker, Labour MP for Gedling and a former Home Office minister, indicated he also backed the new measures. But he added: "I consider it important to enforce not only the new laws in the Bill, but the existing laws."
Earlier, Home Secretary Theresa May justified the new laws, saying: "Sadly, Labour's Licensing Act 2003 has proved to be the disaster that many predicted."
The original Bill included plans for a ban on below-cost selling of alcohol, but this measure has been delayed. However May said plans for the ban would be revealed "shortly".
A number of MPs highlighted the problem of supermarkets selling cheap alcohol - and called for pubs to be recognised as a "useful" controlled place for people to drink.
Tory Andrew Griffiths, MP for Burton and Uttoxeter, said: "Is not the danger that all the measures before us put extra burdens on pubs, which have to deal with the consequences?
"The minister will say that supermarkets can be controlled within the late-night levy, but the problem is clearly not supermarkets selling alcohol after 12 o'clock, but people buying alcohol at 6 o'clock in the evening and drinking it before they go out."
Tory Neil Carmichael said he was "sympathetic to dealing with the problems in supermarkets".
He added: "We do have cheap booze; it is bought in bulk; it is consumed in a bingey way, which does cause huge problems; and we have to address the issue."
Meanwhile, Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select committee, claimed "50 per cent of crime in this country is alcohol-related".
He pointed out in Asda and Morissons 36 cans of lager are available for £18, or 50p a can.
"There is no doubt that it is cheaper to buy alcohol in supermarkets," he said. "As we heard earlier, people get tanked up before they go out because of the very cheap cost of alcohol there."
The Bill has now been sent to the Public Bill committee for scrutiny.
