And a Happy New Year

If the Government has its way, it will be possible to welcome the new millennium and every New Year thereafter with a round-the-clock drinking session.

Before the general election, Labour indicated that it saw the need to revise the licensing laws and, since the party came to power, the Home Office has set in motion a thorough-going review of the relevant legislation. The previous Conservative Government had made its own attempts to change the status quo as regards drinking hours but was forced to back down in the face of considerable opposition, particularly from its own supporters in leafy suburbs and country towns who did not wish to have their peace disturbed by later closing times.

The proposal is that "the normal limit on opening hours should be relaxed at night for all premises, other than off-licences, and that this relaxation should continue on each subsequent New Year's Eve." The Government's preferred option is that the licensing hours should be relaxed for 12 hours. The alternative is a shorter period of 5 hours.

The consultation paper issued by the Home Office on this topic* makes the point that, as far as extensions are concerned, "a specific application must be made in respect of each set of premises for each special occasion". It is expected that on the eve of the new millennium virtually all the 140,000 licensed premises will want extended hours. A general relaxation of normal hours, the Government argues, on this specific occasion and on all New Year's Eves would remove a significant burden from the licensed trade. The consultation paper goes on to say that the suggested measures "would also benefit the courts and the police service who have to consider each application. For the benefit of the trade and the public, it would also provide for consistent opening hours across the country." Throughout the document the assumption is made that any suitable celebration is impossible without excessive alcohol consumption.

Not all the public would see themselves as beneficiaries of a concerned Home Secretary. The controversy that greeted the modest proposals of the last government are witness to that. There is likely to be widespread concern about noise, violence, and other disturbance. Consultants in Accident and Emergency units are already warning that intolerable stress will be put on the NHS by a 36-hour nationwide binge. Casualty departments are stretched to breaking point most weekends with alcohol-related injuries. The Government's document concedes that "some people may object to the proposals on the grounds of expected noise or nuisance." The intention is to provide a system of restriction orders "which would allow courts to impose earlier closing times on individual premises, on an application from the police or a local resident, in order to avoid or reduce disturbance or annoyance to local residents or disorderly conduct by customers." Clearly the administrative burden of dealing with restriction orders will be considerably less than the huge number of extension applications were the system to remain unaltered.

The Home Office's suggestions may be reasonable when viewed in the light of the cost to the trade and the police, but the extra burden to the NHS should not be ignored. It is certainly the case that, under the legislation as it stands at the moment, the 100,000 or so applications to trade for longer hours at New Year would be granted, but none of these would allow 36-hour drinking.

Concern in the NHS is not only being expressed about an intolerable burden on casualty but about the problem of providing an adequate staff level on the eve of the millennium. NHS Trusts throughout the country are already looking at ways of dealing with a long-descried crisis. Whether they will be able to anticipate this is open to question.

Added to these factors is the infamous millennium bug. The Government is playing down the potential chaos but privately there is a serious worry about a possible dislocation of utilities such as water and electricity supply. A picture emerges of a health service, undermanned and cut off from basic essentials, facing the gratuitous extra burden of the casualties of night-long celebrations.

The question has to be asked as to whether it is sensible, given the difficulties already foreseen, to permit circumstances which will exacerbate the situation. Before proceeding along its chosen path, the Home Office must convince both the public and health service professionals that they have genuinely taken every precaution to ensure that the benefits they claim outweigh the inevitable drawbacks. Perhaps the best way of doing this will be for some of the ministers and officials so keen on the changes to volunteer to assist in their local Accident and Emergency Department as this century draws to its close.

*The consultation paper is called Liquor Licensing Deregulation: Consultation on New Year's Eve Licensing Hours, issued by the Home Office, November 1998. The Government is seeking your views on its proposals. In sending any response please answer the following questions:

• i) Do you support an all-night relaxation (every New Year's Eve, beginning with 1999/2000?

• ii) If not, would you support a relaxation until 4 a.m. (every New Year's Eve, beginning with 1999/2000?

Responses should be sent by Friday, 12th February, 1999, to Pratibha Mehta, Liquor, Gambling and Data Protection Unit, Room 1183, Home Office, 50 Queen Anne's Gate, London, SW1H 9AT.