24-hour licensing has not cut drink-fuelled violence say frontline workers

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Title – 24-hour licensing has not cut drink-fuelled violence say frontline workers
Source – The Times
Date – 1st July 2008

Yet another report of how the Licensing Act 2003 has failed, it is nothing new, in fact I sometimes wonder if what is really failing in the UK is people’s memories and their ability to look at two sides of the same story.

Ask anyone involved in any form of education, be they a teacher, trainer, instructor or tutor and ask them what is most difficult to change in a student and they will answer in unison ‘their values’. The ‘cultural shift’ to a café society that was so muted, was never going to happen in a couple of year and certainly not simply by allowing people to drink later. Even after the Act, try going out in London at 2am and finding somewhere to have a pint and your options will be limited; often with a cover charge or a long queue to negotiate. Cultural change takes a generation and we spent nearly a century with 23.00 closing times, 2 years is hardly long enough to change our drinking habits.

The very quintessential British ‘pint’ has always for me represented this prohibition mentality, it is a uniquely British concept. I don’t know of anywhere else in the world where the standard unit of beer is a pint or half litre, everywhere else the standard measure for a beer is a half pint or less. The origins of the pint elude me, but the reasons for smaller measures everywhere else is clear. The smaller size allows for better quality to be experienced, because the beer neither goes flat, nor warm over the time it is drunk. It may well be that because traditional ‘ale’ was not reliant on being cold to be enjoyed and the famous British ‘Warm Beer’ meant that the quality was not lost as the drink was at room temperature when served. This has obviously changed as both ‘bitter’ and ‘lager’ now rely on being served cold, which is no doubt a factor for British drinkers finish their pints more.

What amazes me is that anyone thought for a second that simply extending drinking times was the solution and to hear the complaints now in this article suggest more that there is a lack of understanding than anything. The Licensing Act 2003 introduced a swath of new powers for the authorities, very few of which have been used effectively. Just introducing the act was never alone going to have an effect, whereas implementing the powers at their disposal might.

That local authorities are complaining about the rise in costs, also seems odd. It is hardly surprising to see such a huge increase in costs when prior to the act they had little or no involvement with licensing policy and enforcement as this was primarily carried out by the magistrates. They wanted the control in this area, they asked for it, maybe they just were not quite as aware of how complicated a business licensing really was. As for the police reaction, are we really surprised that crime is happening later, when one of the key objectives was to spread out the times that people left licensed premises and therefore the times that disorder is likely to occur; so far from being a failure this is exactly what the act set out to do on that front. However all parties need to make more of an effort as a reduction in overall crime has to be the next objective and we all have a role to play in this.

The first step for licensed retailers should be the effective training of their teams to ensure they all play their vital role in reducing crime and disorder, one of the four key licensing objectives. At Beyond The Blue we offer the portfolio of BIIAB licensing courses including the National Certificate for Door Supervisors (NCDS), the Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing (ARAR) and the National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) both of which offer core learning objectives in Responsible Alcohol Retailing.

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