Brown ‘may reverse drinking laws’

Comments by Gordon Brown seeming to suggest that he might overturn the licensing legislation introduced by his predecessor Tony Blair, allowing pubs in England and Wales to open 24 hours a day received wide coverage. This followed earlier comments by the new Prime Minister which were interpreted by the media as meaning that he was undertaking a special, new review of the impact of the Licensing Act.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme Mr Brown said that there was ‘an issue’ about 24-hour licensing, adding: “I will not hesitate to change policies if I think that we have got to make these changes… Where there are things that are wrong and where mistakes have been made, we will look at these and we will change these things. That's why on casinos we are looking again, on cannabis we are looking again and that's why on 24- hour drinking we are looking again.”

Asked about the impact of longer licensing hours on behaviour, he told GMTV: “I think we have got to learn. In most cases, it has not had any devastating effect. It is the same with cannabis. It is the message you send out. Why I want to upgrade cannabis and make it more a drug that people worry about is because we don't want to send out a message - just like with alcohol - to teenagers that we accept these things. Binge-drinking is unacceptable, bullying is unacceptable, bad behaviour in classrooms is unacceptable.

“If it needs a reversal of policy, we will do it. Just as with gambling, we will review all the evidence and if a change needs to be made, I will not hesitate to make a change in the interests of the country.”

However, earlier reports that Mr Brown had ordered a new review of the Licensing Act turned out to be incorrect. It was later explained by spokesmen for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, the government department responsible for licensing, that there was no new review of the licensing laws - the Prime Minister was reannouncing the review which was already taking place – principally the evaluation by the Home Office into the impact of the Act on crime and disorder which is due to be published towards the end of 2007. In addition, there were a number of other reviews, reports and consultations, including the fees review, the scrutiny council’s work, the live music forum report, the DCMS better regulation simplification plan, the new licensing Statistical Bulletin and work looking at the impact on circuses.