Scotland to raise drink-buying age

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Title – Scotland to raise drink-buying age
Source – Sunday Times
Date – 15th June 2008

It has seemed to be the case for many years now that what happened in Westminster council in regard to the private security industry was rolled out to the country later and what happened in Glasgow in regard to licensing was later rolled out across the country. So it should come as no surprise to anyone to find that if Scotland does go ahead with raising the age for off-sales alcohol purchasing and introduce other measures of ‘minimum pricing’, the rest of the UK is eventually likely to follow suit.

But this is a big change that is undoubtedly going to face some major hurdles, great opposition from sectors of the community and the drink manufacturing industry. So England and Wales will initially take a step backwards and gauge the effects of any action Scotland takes before committing to any of there own. What you can expect is that if changes are accepted and enforceable in Scotland they will soon enough cross over to the rest of the UK.

What effect these changes would have is going to be difficult to quantify and different businesses across the country will frantically be getting their calculators out and working out who the winners and losers will be.

The pubs and clubs will welcome any change; they have been complaining about the ‘loss-leading’ strategies of the supermarkets for years and have been championing the ‘control’ they have over drinkers that no one has when they drink at home.

Small retailers and off-licenses face a mixed bag. On the one hand ‘minimum pricing’ could rebalance the playing field with the supermarkets and raise their margins; on the other hand they would miss out on the very lucrative 18-21 year old market.

The supermarkets may be hard hit, selling alcohol as a loss-leader has proved to be very successful and losing the 18-21 year old market will certainly be a blow. This may be offset by increase in margins forced upon them by minimum pricing and refocusing their promotional strategies on less expensive alternatives.

The drinks manufacturers lose on all fronts, their market is squeezed and margins will not significantly increase. Equally some businesses that rely very heavily on the 18-21 year old market such as University shops or those located near Universities will undoubtedly have to rethink their strategies.

As for enforcing these potential new laws that is set to be a battle on its own. We may be used to seeing 15 year olds outside a shop asking passers by to go in and buy them a can of cider, it will be an odd sight indeed, to see a 20 year old doing the same…

We run the portfolio of BIIAB licensed retail sector training courses including the National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH), the Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing (ARAR) and the National Certificate for Designated Premises Supervisors (NCDPS) to help those working in the licensed retail sector to meet their statutory requests and to champion responsible alcohol retailling.

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