New appointments to Community Alcohol Partnerships board

Community Alcohol Partnerships are endorsed by the Home Office and Department of Health and bring together local retailers, trading standards and police to tackle the problem of underage drinking and associated anti-social behaviour.

Appointed to the board will be Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary Sir Denis O’Connor, addiction charity Addaction’s chief executive Simon Antrobus, chief executive of volunteering charity vinspired Terry Ryall and Trading Standards Institute board member Nikki Pasek MBE.

The board will also include retailing representatives John McLaughlin (Tesco’s), Shane Brennan (Association of Convenience Stores), Adrian Hill (Co-op) and Nick Grant (Sainsbury’s).

Community Alcohol Partnerships (CAPs) have been officially instated as a Community Interest Company and will be holding its inaugural board meeting on the 10 October.

The board will be tasked with expanding both the number and scope of the Partnerships in the UK following on from an injection of funding from alcohol retailers and, for the first time, alcohol producers.

Baroness Helen Newlove said: “I’m delighted with the appointment of our new board members, who bring such wealth of experience at the highest levels of retail, the police, trading standards and the charity and voluntary sectors.

“The commitment of such impressive ‘big hitters’ in their fields signals our determination that we mean business - we are determined to swiftly deal with the formidable range of issues that we face. Be in no doubt that we shall do it.

“We have ambitious plans to develop and expand CAPs to tackle the problem of underage drinking in our communities and I am confident we now have the right people to help us do this.”