Mandatory code still on the agenda

The power to impose statutory regulations on the selling of alcohol, designed to outlaw irresponsible drinks promotions, was, after all, included in the Policing and crime Act which received Royal Assent in November 2009.

There had been considerable doubt as to whether the controversial mandatory code on the retailing of alcohol, announced to a fanfare of publicity earlier in the year, would ever actually be introduced, particularly after Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, and normally reckoned to be the Deputy Prime Minister in all but name, pleased the alcohol industry and disappointed many in the public health sector by calling for a delay in introducing the code until after the next general election.

However, the Home Office, which still favoured the early introduction of the Mandatory Code, appears to have won the day. The Policing and Crime Act introduces an ‘enabling power’ whereby the Home Secretary can draw up a code of practice for the alcohol industry which will permit the imposition of some mandatory licensing conditions and allow licensing authorities to ‘block apply’ conditions to a number of premises at a time. At the time of writing, however, the content of the code appears not to have been decided, and it is not entirely clear what the next steps will be or what timescale will apply.

Prime Ministerial initiative

Prior to the passage of the Policing and Crime Act, a draft code was put out to extensive consultation with stakeholders including the trade, police, local authorities and alcohol NGOs. The code was originally announced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown as the latest Government initiative to combat binge drinking. It was presented as a means of outlawing promotions aimed at encouraging customers to drink more than they would otherwise have done, such as drinking games, the provision of free drink for certain groups, and offers to ‘drink as much as you like’ for a fixed fee. These promotions, Mr Brown said, could turn some town centres into no-go areas.

Predictably, Mandelson’s attempt to delay was attacked by some in the alcohol harm prevention lobby. In a letter to the Times newspaper, Don Shenker of Alcohol Concern and Professor Ian Gilmour of the Royal College of Physicians accused the Government of favouring profit over health. The letter was also signed by Alison Rogers of the British Liver Trust and Mike Craik, Chief Constable of Northumbria Police. The letter said:

“When the mandatory code for alcohol sales was announced six months ago it was already a long overdue measure, designed to tackle patently irresponsible promotion of alcohol, such as the ‘drink all you can’ offers and giveaway prices in supermarkets.

“Delaying the measure until 2011 - effectively shelving it indefinitely - would be a costly error and appears to pander to big business concerns over profit at the expense of safer streets and public health.”

However, the disappointment at Lord Mandelson’s attempt to delay the Code was not shared by all nonbusiness stakeholders.

Some local authorities had attacked the Code for being little more than another gimmick. The City of Westminster, normally regarded as one of the toughest licensing authorities in the country, questioned whether the new powers in the Code would have any effect as powers already existed in the Licensing Act to deal with problem alcohol retailers. Westminster also pointed out the lack of coherence in policy, with the Mandatory Code seeming to impose the very list of mandatory conditions on licensed premises that the Ministerial Guidance to the new Licensing Act disallowed. The London Borough of Lambeth criticised the Code for focusing on pubs when the real problem was very cheap alcohol being sold from off licenses, especially the supermarkets.