Safe. Sensible. Social; Selling alcohol responsibly - Final consultation published

The Home Office has today published its final consultation on its controversial plans for a mandatory Code of Practice on alcohol sales, including the proposed mandatory national and discretionary local conditions.  Most of the finalised proposals have been well trailed in advance.

A link to the full consultation document follows; please note that the expiry date for representations is 5 August 2009.

Link: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/cons-2009-alcohol/cons-2009-alcohol-doc?view=Binary

Proposed mandatory conditions:

These will apply to all premises holding a premises licence and will be subject to a maximum of 9 (including the existing 3 conditions).  They will apply to all existing and future licensed premises, although the majority of the currently proposed new conditions appear disproportionately to be directed at the on (as opposed to the off) trade.

These include:

• Banning irresponsible promotions, such as ‘all you can drink for £10’ or speed drinking competitions or any promotion which encourages the consumption of large quantities of alcohol
• Banning alcohol from being dispensed directly into the mouth of any customer
• Ensuring that smaller measures of alcohol are made available to customers – beer, lager or cider: ½ pint; gin, rum, vodka or whisky: 25ml or 35ml: still wine in a glass: 125ml (except where wine is only sold by the bottle)
• Ensuring the free availability of tap water
• Ensuring that online or mail order alcohol retailers have robust age verification systems in place to prevent underage sales (this is the only condition specifically directed at the off trade)
• Through the Food Safety Act 1990 ensuring that there is point of sale information visible to all customers of licensed premises about the unit content of a representative sample of drinks – and in the off trade further information is provided about heath guidelines and risk

Future proposals for consideration include limiting the measures for spirits to 25ml only, 35 ml only or whether it should be for the licence holder to choose between 25 and 35ml. Additionally there is a possible proposal on which views are sought banning sales of alcohol at a level below the amount of excise duty and VAT on the individual product to reduce below cost sales.

Discretionary local conditions:

There could be applied by the local licensing authority to two or more premises if they are of the view that the conditions or some of them if they feel that it is necessary to mitigate or prevent ongoing nuisance or disorder associated with the relevant premises.  The precise test is set out at para 4.3 of the consultation.  The discretionary conditions are 16 in number and include:

• Banning the discounted sale of alcohol at particular times of the day or week or is for less than 72 continuous hours in duration
• Banning the sale of alcohol at discounted prices where the discount is dependant on a ‘pub crawl’
• Ensuring that a risk assessment agreed with the LA is carried out
• Ensuring the regular collection of empty or abandoned glasses
• Banning the sale of alcohol in glass containers
• Preventing customers leaving licensed premises  with unsealed glass containers
• Ensuring regular toilet checks are carried out
• Ensuring SIA door staff conduct checks for weapons and drugs
• Ensuring that incident records are maintained
• Requiring the implementation of an agreed dispersal policy
• Ensuring that CCTV is in place and operative
• Ensuring implementation of ‘Challenge 21’ (NB – not 25)
• Ensuring that bulk discounts are not offered at stipulated times

Other possible proposals on which consultation is being undertaken include:

• Requirement for staff training in due diligence matters (4.14)
• Requirement for a minimum seating provision (4.19)
• Mandatory requirement for door staff (4.23)

Appeals:

There can be no appeal against the imposition of the mandatory conditions which would apply to all premises.

Individual premises will have a right of appeal to the magistrates should the LA determine to impose discretionary conditions upon them.  It is not clear from the consultation whether the imposed conditions would apply whilst the appeal was pending.

A reminder:

These provisions will be introduced through the Policing and Crime Bill which is currently being debated in parliament.  One of the other provisions which forms a centre piece of this legislation is the proposal to reduce the criminal offence of persistent sale of alcohol to the under aged from 3 occurrences within a three month period to 2.  This offence can lead to a three month suspension of the licence or £10,000 fine.

John Gaunt
John Gaunt & Partner
John Gaunt & Partners regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority – SRA No. 173393