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To view the original Sunday Times article Click Here
Title – Bars facing ban on free alcohol / Ban on free drinks for women in bars
Source – www.bbc.co.uk / The Sunday Times
Date – 12the October 2008
You can’t say we have not been warning you, here is the first real indication that the Licensed Retail Sector is in for yet another round of regulation and this one could be expensive. For those responsible alcohol retailers it will seem like a very unnecessary burden at a time when the sector as a whole is desperately looking for ways to cut its costs, not add to them.
With this ‘leak’ of the proposals we are only given a flavour, but it has been obvious to me for a while that the building blocks have slowly been falling into place for the government to push through reforms; the KPMG Report, the ‘Evaluation of the impact of the Licensing Act’ and the relative ‘success’ of the SIA licensing process; in comparison to some of the failures associated with the ‘Grand-fathering’ of Personal Licences under the Licensing Act 2003.
The drinks industries own codes of practice are a very effective way to promote Responsible Alcohol Retailing and those that follow these codes will not mourn the regulation and effective banning of practices such as ‘all you can drink’ linked to entrance prices, minimum pricing per unit of alcohol and the uncompetitive promotions offered by the bigger competitors to squeeze out ‘local retailers’.
On the training front, the fear will be that the introduction of mandatory training is disproportionate or inappropriate. Responsible employers should already provide significant training to staff, not just because they realise the legal and moral responsibilities they have, but also because of the competitive advantage that well trained staff provide. As more people take up courses such as the Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing (ARAR) aimed at front line staff selling alcohol, they realise the benefits of this course. We would hope that if mandatory training is to be introduced then this would be the sensible approach.
The government would also take great steps if they finally clarified the existing rules and enforced them. For example there is still no definitive guidance on the role of Personal Licence holders regarding how much control and how actively involved they have to be in order to legitimately ‘authorise the sale of alcohol’, every licensing authority seems to take a different approach. If you need clarification on this matter please Contact Us and we will offer our opinion based on our work with licensing officers, legal advice received and extensive research into The Act and associated guidance.
The other question that must be asked of the government policy is; are they going to address the issue of the thousands of Personal Licence holders who gained their licence by virtue of being named on a licence under the 1964 act at the point of conversion? Our experience is that a substantial proportion of these licence holders believe they understand the new 2003 Licensing Act; but in reality when they send staff to attend our National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) course, start to realise they are out of date and out of touch and soon send themselves on the same course.
The problem with this information is in those rules that are proposed that seem senseless. Is wine-tasting really a social pariah that leads to drunkenness and crime and disorder, public nuisance or public safety issues? We know that new regulation brings with it the absurd and the ridiculous, we plead with the government think this through, consult with the industry and don’t punish the responsible retailers with punitive expensive measures because of the irresponsible minority; we ask them to consider the reality of where the problems actually lie regarding alcohol consumption; we know more alcohol is consumed in the home in uncontrolled environment than the on-trade and we know that the on-trade already deals (at great expense) with the problems that arise as a result of customers ‘pre-loading’; we ask them not to have a knee-jerk reaction to the myths and stereotypes that are out there. The original Act already reads in part like it was written by a politician from a small country village. If additional legislation is on the way look for effective solutions from within the sector, consult licensing inspectors and proactively consult real people not just those that have the time to attend town-hall meetings.
It looks like further regulation is on the way. Remember the Security Industry Act 2001 and the smoking ban; we urge our clients not to fall behind, get your house in order now and call us at Beyond The Blue.
Please visit our website please visit at
www.btbl.co.ukSource – www.bbc.co.uk / The Sunday Times
Date – 12the October 2008
You can’t say we have not been warning you, here is the first real indication that the Licensed Retail Sector is in for yet another round of regulation and this one could be expensive. For those responsible alcohol retailers it will seem like a very unnecessary burden at a time when the sector as a whole is desperately looking for ways to cut its costs, not add to them.
With this ‘leak’ of the proposals we are only given a flavour, but it has been obvious to me for a while that the building blocks have slowly been falling into place for the government to push through reforms; the KPMG Report, the ‘Evaluation of the impact of the Licensing Act’ and the relative ‘success’ of the SIA licensing process; in comparison to some of the failures associated with the ‘Grand-fathering’ of Personal Licences under the Licensing Act 2003.
The drinks industries own codes of practice are a very effective way to promote Responsible Alcohol Retailing and those that follow these codes will not mourn the regulation and effective banning of practices such as ‘all you can drink’ linked to entrance prices, minimum pricing per unit of alcohol and the uncompetitive promotions offered by the bigger competitors to squeeze out ‘local retailers’.
On the training front, the fear will be that the introduction of mandatory training is disproportionate or inappropriate. Responsible employers should already provide significant training to staff, not just because they realise the legal and moral responsibilities they have, but also because of the competitive advantage that well trained staff provide. As more people take up courses such as the Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing (ARAR) aimed at front line staff selling alcohol, they realise the benefits of this course. We would hope that if mandatory training is to be introduced then this would be the sensible approach.
The government would also take great steps if they finally clarified the existing rules and enforced them. For example there is still no definitive guidance on the role of Personal Licence holders regarding how much control and how actively involved they have to be in order to legitimately ‘authorise the sale of alcohol’, every licensing authority seems to take a different approach. If you need clarification on this matter please Contact Us and we will offer our opinion based on our work with licensing officers, legal advice received and extensive research into The Act and associated guidance.
The other question that must be asked of the government policy is; are they going to address the issue of the thousands of Personal Licence holders who gained their licence by virtue of being named on a licence under the 1964 act at the point of conversion? Our experience is that a substantial proportion of these licence holders believe they understand the new 2003 Licensing Act; but in reality when they send staff to attend our National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) course, start to realise they are out of date and out of touch and soon send themselves on the same course.
The problem with this information is in those rules that are proposed that seem senseless. Is wine-tasting really a social pariah that leads to drunkenness and crime and disorder, public nuisance or public safety issues? We know that new regulation brings with it the absurd and the ridiculous, we plead with the government think this through, consult with the industry and don’t punish the responsible retailers with punitive expensive measures because of the irresponsible minority; we ask them to consider the reality of where the problems actually lie regarding alcohol consumption; we know more alcohol is consumed in the home in uncontrolled environment than the on-trade and we know that the on-trade already deals (at great expense) with the problems that arise as a result of customers ‘pre-loading’; we ask them not to have a knee-jerk reaction to the myths and stereotypes that are out there. The original Act already reads in part like it was written by a politician from a small country village. If additional legislation is on the way look for effective solutions from within the sector, consult licensing inspectors and proactively consult real people not just those that have the time to attend town-hall meetings.
It looks like further regulation is on the way. Remember the Security Industry Act 2001 and the smoking ban; we urge our clients not to fall behind, get your house in order now and call us at Beyond The Blue.
Please visit our website please visit at
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