Plans to relax licensing laws lambasted by doctors and alcohol groups

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/23/plans-relax-licensing-laws-doctors-alcohol-bma

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Ministers are under fire because of plans to let the Women's Institute, bed and breakfasts and charities start selling alcohol, which doctors and local councils warn could worsen Britain's drink problem.

The British Medical Association said relaxing the licensing laws was wrong, given the huge damage alcohol already causes and its heavy burden on the NHS.

"There is nothing wrong with moderate alcohol intake, but we do not need to be relaxing the laws on the selling of alcohol. We need a well-controlled licensing system that ensures alcohol is sold in appropriate circumstances," said Dr Andrew Thomson, a member of the BMA's board of science.

The House of Lords is due to debate the plan, which is contained in a clause in the deregulation bill, on Monday. If passed it will let community groups offer "small" amounts of alcohol for sale at fundraising events they run and let B&B owners offer guests an alcoholic drink on arrival.

Norman Baker, the Home Office minister responsible for alcohol, told MPs last month it would make it simpler and cheaper for designated groups and businesses to get a new "community and ancillary sellers notice" – a license to sell drink. Church choirs wanting to offer a glass of wine to audience members in the interval of a performance or local groups putting on events could avoid having to pay up to £1,900 for an annual alcohol licence under the new scheme, Baker added.

"Groups such as the Women's Institute, thriving church organisations and other local charities are not just about 'jam and Jerusalem'. Sometimes they might also be about a glass of warm beer or chilled chardonnay," he said.

But the Local Government Association, which represents local authorities, has warned that the plan "could be said to increase the availability and accessibility of alcohol, contributing to the high levels of alcohol-related harm that exist".

A new survey by Balance, an alcohol group in the north-east, found that an overwhelming majority of people in the area are against extending further the number and type of places that sell alcohol. It is worried that more small businesses could apply for the new licences.

Colin Shevills, Balance's director, said the proposed licensing law changes could see more children ending up in hospital after drinking too much. "Ancillary licences will only make matters worse. It will remove barriers certain businesses currently face when obtaining licences, making it harder for local licensing officers to object.

"If this legislation is implemented it will effectively mean that the government is encouraging more alcohol consumption rather than less," Shevills added.

Katherine Brown, director of the Institute of Alcohol Studies, an independent thinktank, said that, coming after some motorway service stations were allowed to include a pub, the move would be a further unwelcome widening of the type of premises permitted to sell drink.

"At a time when alcohol-related hospital admissions and deaths are on the rise, we need to ask: is it sensible to encourage people to drink more?

"Perhaps even more important is the impact this legislation could have on normalising alcohol as must-have for every occasion."

Baker denies consumption will rise as a result of the move, which he says is "a radical new licensing authorisation that will help to achieve the government's aims of helping community groups and particular small businesses while at the same time maintaining important public health and public safety safeguards".

Kelvin Hopkins, one of a number of Labour MPs who are concerned, told MPs last month: "It is all very well to say, 'Have a drink when you arrive at your B&B – a little tincture to warm you up for the evening and get you started before to have your bottle of wine with dinner later on,' but it encourages a more relaxed culture of alcohol consumption when we should instead be raising concerns about it."