A government official gives the new 24-hour drinking laws 7/10, “good but could do better”, after a review of their impact, 30 months on.
Ministers point to a fall of three percent in the total amount of alcohol-related offences and say the more relaxed approach to the country’s licensing laws has given drinkers more choice and eased all the problems associated with the old 11 pm chuck-out time.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has introduced a range of new measures and stresses that the review is a staging post on the road to taming the beast rather than a final solution to Britain’s age-old booze problems.
Critics look around the heaving city-centre streets on a Friday night and say the new regime has done little or nothing to encourage the Holy Grail of a Continental-style cafe culture. Booze-related crime, they say, has not gone away: it merely takes place later at night now.
Do you think the old licensing laws should be brought back — or is the genie now well and truly out of the bottle? And is Britain’s drink-till-you-drop culture anything a government could hope to change anyway?
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16 comments so far
The idea that 30 months is a sufficient amount of time to detect a change in the ingrained drinking patterns of the English is ridiculous.
- Posted by KarmaIt’ll take at least 5 years to even see any significant changes, and probably 10 years before any firm conclusions can be made.
Keep the current laws as they are and use education and information to change people’s perceptions - it was done with drink-driving, so it’s not impossible.
The attmept to bring the UK in line with main land Europe fails to take into account the drink to excess culture that exisit in this country. In Continental Europe alcohol is viewed in a much broader context than merely going out to get drunk. I have over many years seen the evidence for myself in France, Spain and Italy; sure people in those countries do get drunk but it is not the sole expectation of a night out. Alcohol accounts for more deaths, violence, and costs to the NHS than any other drug and yet we continue to encourage its consumption and ease of availabilty.
- Posted by John Bellwhat can you expect from this useless government they wont cancel the drink hours because of the revenue from drink so they let young ones kill themselves with booze related problems, because we have to fund two wars started by lying blair and lockjaw brown total anarchy is waiting in the wings.
- Posted by ronsoberthis is only my view - if all alcohol was only sold through licensed premises then retail standards would be much higher. in a society where alcohol is sold from every excuse for a vendor do you expect retail standards to be high? this problem is that straight forward. the consequences of the issue however will continue to be trajic until we can bring Retail Standards to where they should be - enforcing the law to the highest standards by only using licenced “off sales” retailers.
- Posted by David McGrathSocial education at school and college is needed about drinking also make sure everybody whom is arrested for drinking offences goes to 10 classes.
Instead of giving them an on the spot fine give them a ten class attendance at classes during the day and follow up each offender. Any who fail to attend go to court with mandatory 10 days in prison. They wouldn’t do it again.
- Posted by PeterAs an off-license employee I feel that the burden on licensed premises is too great and that it should be reversed. Not a single press article I have read on this subject has mentioned the penalty for an underage person who attempts to buy alcohol. Is there one? Maybe the Government should consider imposing a significant fine or other punishment for children attempting to buy alcohol. Admittedly licensed premises do not to be vigilant, I myself have confiscated numerous fake identification cards from underage patrons. However, I was fined £80 for selling alcohol to a person under the age of 18 despite the individual having previously provided me with acceptable identification, his brother’s driving license, which as I could not prove he had presented to me before I couldn’t argue the fine. The state of the law is ridiculous and considerably unfair on licensed premises and their staff.
- Posted by James CluttonThe loosening of drinking hours to create a more relaxed drinking culture is at odds with the clamping down on under age drinking.
Most experts advise that alcohol SHOULD be made available in moderation, and under controlled circumstances to under 18s (eg http://www.drinkingandyou.com/site/uk/ch ild.htm). This is what CREATES the cafe culture in europe. Children are educated in the use of alcohol.
Under age drinking always went on, and you knew you’d get away with it if you didn’t drink too much, and didn’t cause trouble - ie acted responsibly. Your 18th birthday doesn’t magically educate you into responsible actions. On the other hand sneaking the odd half when your 16 or 17 does.
the tightening of underage drinking enforcement creates 18 year old binge drinkers.
- Posted by ianI agree that education is the key to solving the binge drink problem. You can not blame the government for this or the late licensing laws and it is not solely a problem for underage drinkers.
Advertising and education will help and is necessary to reduce the level of binge drinking and drinking related offences. If people realise what they are doing to their body this may affect their decision to drink heavily. Just look at what Jamie Oliver did for School Dinners.
It will however, take time for the British people to change their drink culture.
- Posted by BobWhy do politicians have to make things so complicated? Surely it’s simply a matter of stopping these corner shops from selling the alcohol in the first place to people under age, enforcing the law of publicans not serving alcohol to people who are so obviously inebriated, and if all else fails increase the age of purchasing alcohol. Smoking was bad for you so they banned it in public places, drinkings bad for you so they want to control that, when are they going to ban fast food as obesity and related illlnesses is now the biggest burden on the NHS. BAN the burger I say
- Posted by robertThe extension to licensing hours has brought early morning loud music, shouting, screaming, fighting and public urinating to many residential streets to which peace and quiet used to return before midnight. This is taking up more Environmental Health, Licensing and Police Officers’ time, pushing up Council Tax bills. There aren’t enough Police Officers to deal with the antisocial behaviour so residents usually have to just endure the sleep disturbance and vandalism. I doubt if the cretins who are defending the Licensing Act live near a noisy pub or nightclub that churns out loud music and spews out drunken customers into the early morning.
- Posted by JohnIt’s about time this goverment and local councils admit they could put an end to BINGE DRINKING in a matter of weeks. The answer is so simple,STOP SUPERMARKETS SELLING ALCOHOL they wont like it but its got to be done.
- Posted by BrianPut the alcohol back in the PUB’S where it belongs and is regulated by persons with more expirence than a 16 year old till operator. And has a personal licence holder monitoring sale’s at all time’s.
As one commenter has said it will take years for the new regulations to bed in. But if you allow all pubs to open when they want you will always have a problem. The continent does have restrictions on hours that bars open. Here in Spain where I live the small bars that normally serve tapas etc close by 1:00am the pub style bar is allowed to stay open unitl 4:30am and the vast majority stick to it.
- Posted by Pete BrownBut in the end it is about culture and that only changes with time. In the short term make sure that existing legislation is enforced properly, and as with noise abatement use environmental health legislation as a control. Red and Yellow cards are a nonsense - suspend the licence of the corner shop who sells to underage drinkers for say six months first offence and permanently for subsequent offences - make it two or three years before a shop keeper can reapply.
And most importnatly as many have said start educating - perhaps the education should have started before the changes, bit radical I know but fore warned is fore armed.
I’m in my early 20’s, so I’m lucky enough to have the view point which MP’s don’t. What I mean by that is I go to city pubs and clubs, and every single time there are people being served alcohol who are past the ‘drunk’ stage, and approaching/exceeding leglessness.
I understand that the licensing laws prevent premises serving people who are obviously intoxicated, but pubs and clubs refuse to do so unless they’re falling down stairs or starting a fight. Get strict on upholding that and much of the violence and alcohol related accidents and illnesses will decrease rapidly.
I second the point from one of the messages above about restricting sale of alcohol in supermarkets. I used to live in Australia and the beers, wines and spirits were sold in a seperate sort of ‘annexed’ shop.
This would stop theft dramatically too, as the staff will be able to see people as they enter and leave. Another plus point is you’re not being served by a 16 year old girl asking her nearest checkout supervisor if they think your over 18. You would be dealing with staff dedicated to dealing with the sale of alcohol, and the laws that come with that.
- Posted by MattCurrently if you go out onto the streets late at night they are generally deserted, a few dog walkers, joggers or people going to or from work. A lot of the local public access spaces have had alcohol bans placed on them (Local paranoia? No more picnics in your local park!) and a lot of local pubs have been converted into flats. Verses a situation portrayed on television of large quantities of people drunk and disorderly (i am certainly not witnessing it in my area). It will take at least ten years for the changes in the licensing law to take effect and I think the change was a good thing. I really do wish that those with anxiety to do with being out at night would get treatment. Your local doctor can recommend specialists to help (clinical hypnotherapies/Behavioural specialists.
- Posted by michael UKA story told by a friend with MS of how, as his condition worsened. His ability to walk made it look like he was drunk to anyone passing by. So would you be scared of him?
The government and its apologists take the familiar route of blaming everyone except the offenders and fiddling around with yet more ineffective measures to pretend that they are doing something. The only action necessary to stop what is legally known as aggravated drunkenness on the streets is to apply the existing law - a £1000 fine with prison for non-payment. Slam a few of ‘em up and the rest will soon get the message and start to behave themselves.
The problem with enforcing the law is that do it you need: the will to do it; enough police; an efficient court system; enough prison places. The government has none of these. Instead, in 2001 it introduced an £80 “fixed penalty notice” which has only a 60% likelihood of being collected. No night in the cells; no court appearance, and quite likely no action to enforce payment.
Pathetic? Yes. Need a new government? Yes.
- Posted by Mike TOnly very recently was I made aware of this law by a friend visiting from the UK. I believe this law was necessary so that people have more drinking freedom and so that the police is given powers they need to tackle the problem of alcohol-related crime and violence… Now, I know that politicians are a breed of super-human, super-intelligent people - that’s the reason why I can’t see the connection between the law and what it tries to tackle. It seems to me that if somebody wants to tackle violence/crime, it is by tackling the root causes, not just perform disaster management. Why is the freedom of 24/7 services only for drinking then, why not having museums & art galleries open 24/7, what about our right of watching decent art house films all year around?… Well, if I was a UK citizen, I’d like to see that tackled too. I’m so glad I do not live in the UK. I was born in Lisbon, lived for 2 years in Paris, now I live in the Netherlands… and coming from this background, I can tell you that you can not expect to get to the bohemian continental Café culture (which took more than 2 centuries to develop) by any 24/7 freedom to go out and have a drink, specially if the latter means ‘get drunk’.
- Posted by Io Martins