Alcohol Strategy: More intervention is nigh

Turning the tide​

The second chapter is entitled Turning the Tide and has the off-trade firmly in its sights, with proposals for a minimum price per unit and a ban on multi-buy promotions.

Neither is proposed to affect the on-trade. But here endeth the good news, for tucked away in these proposals is a promise to review the existing mandatory conditions to ensure that they are “sufficiently targeted” at irresponsible drinking.

The Government can only mean the atrociously drafted condition that prohibits “unspecified” or “unlimited” amounts of alcohol but allows £5 for 10 drinks offers or indeed the infamous 20p-per-pint mayhem in Warrington, Cheshire. We can probably look forward to another consultation on the mandatory code. 

PRSR reforms​

The third chapter deals with the much-discussed PRSR reforms, many of which are likely to come into effect in April this year. But there has been little discussion to date of the practicalities — come the 25th an applicant for a temporary event notice (TEN) will have to serve the environmental health officer, as well as the police, and there will be a new creature called a “late TEN”.  

No doubt the amended forms will come out just in time to confuse applicants and authorities. I doubt the form will have a box to allow the applicant to suggest relevant conditions from the premises licence to add to the TEN, in order to avoid the cumbersome and uncertain procedure of objection notices and statements of conditions.  

And what about primary care trusts (PCTs) becoming responsible authorities? PCTs are undergoing great change themselves, so we will probably be sending copy applications into the ether as we do now with planning and child protection.

As for licensing authorities, to ensure fair play, they may have to divide their departments by a so-called ‘Chinese wall’ between the officer dealing with the administration of licences and the officer acting as a responsible authority. Fine for big councils but not so easy for one-person departments.

Worryingly, the Government intends to amend the statutory guidance to add a new health-related “objective” specifically in relation to cumulative impact. Notwithstanding the logical absurdity of having a new licensing objective for only one element of licensing (and a non-statutory one at that — cumulative impact policies, or CIPs, are mentioned only in the guidance), a single premises has little hope of overcoming this particular hurdle in a densely-packed high street.

CIPs will also be “clarified” to apply to both the on and off-trade (something already being done by a number of authorities) and to promote fixed and staggered closing times, together with zoning — a U-turn from the original guidance.

Definition of ‘drunk’​

Support for test purchasing for selling to drunks is mooted.  The legal definition of a real drunk is difficult enough to prove — good luck to any parliamentary draftsman charged with defining a pretend one. Or perhaps we shall see the actors used by North Wales Police in 2010 (complete with vomit-smeared jackets and threadbare shoes) on a UK tour?

The Government intends to increase the number of TENS per premises for community events from 12 to either 15 or 18. I trust this will include a charity disco in a pub and not just village hall events.

There is also the suggestion of removing the need for a personal licence for premises providing ‘minimal’ alcohol sales that don’t impact on crime and disorder. But why the emphasis on minimal? A supermarket’s alcohol sales may be minimal compared to its overall turnover, but in many cases those sales will have a greater impact on crime and disorder than any pub — and why should a French deli not require a personal licence when a sleepy country pub does?  

We shall revisit these proposals over the coming months, but you have been warned. The PRSR may be the knock-out blow, but there is apparently no law against kicking a man when he is down.