Alcohol home delivery services: a liberalisation too far?

Former (retired) lead on drug prevention and education for Cheshire Constabulary, Allan Brown, is concerned about the proliferation of alcohol home delivery services - services that sell alcohol over the phone or online and deliver it direct to the customer.  In this article for Alcohol Policy UK he argues that such services are a step too far on the path of licensing reform.

Last summer John Woodhouse, a contributor to a Staffordshire newspaper, wrote in relation to the opening of a 24-hour fast food venue:

"Personally, I'm not one for this inexorable move towards a 24-hour society. Essentially, the world is a very simple place. Half the time it's light, the other half it's dark. The light bit is when you move around. The dark bit is when you have a rest."

Now that might be an overly simplistic view, and there are probably going to be as many who wholeheartedly crave a 24-hour society as there are those who fear and loathe it, but whichever camp you occupy there is no denying that the world in the 21st Century is a high-octane a place. The Archbishop of Canterbury spoke last year of his concerns that the review ordered into 24-hour drinking by Prime Minister Gordon Brown would conclude that the legislation has been largely a success. He said:

"There is a whole culture of alcohol abuse which this country has failed to  tackle and the 24-hour thing is just the tip of the iceberg.  It is not that I am singling it out as the worst bit of the field, it is just that it is one of the more obviously presenting factors."

However the point of my writing is not to debate the whys and wherefores of government policy or even bemoan the impact of our 24 hour party culture, but merely to engender a discussion around one element of our drinking society, the proliferation of alcohol home delivery services.

Back in 2006, Dr Sheila Shribman, National Clinical Director for Children, Young People and Maternity Services raised concerns about the possible abuse of irresponsible alcohol home delivery services and it seemed that the Department of Health were preparing to launch a campaign. Yet the number and variety of such services increases daily and whilst some licensing authorities have blocked individuals plans, most reluctantly agree to licensing the activity, albeit on extensive conditions.

There are obviously many types of service providers, from major supermarkets, to dedicated off site retailers, internet companies, to Taxi firms who sell alcohol out of the boot of a car; whatever retailer or the mode of delivery, they all present the same sort of problems for regulation, enforcement and monitoring. They all generate public health concerns because they make alcohol more available and in some cases provide immediate round the clock access.

This is not solely a problem of the 21st century living; I recall from my youth the sight of the Birmingham brewer Davenports, delivering “beer at home” across the West Midlands, although in those halcyon days it seemed to me that such excess was the sole preserve of the well to do and my supposed social betters. Off Licences were sparsely scattered throughout predominately urban areas, relatively few in number, and the main sources of alcohol were public houses.

Today the availability of alcohol is beyond comparison to previous generations. From corner store to supermarket, pub, off licence and petrol station, wherever you are in this country alcohol is within the reach of all.  Yet it is against this background that home delivery services have proliferated. On the introduction of the Licensing Act 2003 focus shifted to activity at a specific premises and the operator of those premises, there were cases where some retailers established delivery services believing that they didn’t require a license at all.

In most cases such practice has been corrected, but the hangover from such lack of definition is evident in the wider ranging licensing responses across the country. In some areas licence applications are rejected, in others granted without concern, and in yet more only granted under a significant number of conditions. Surely the time is right for consistency in Licensing and is it too much to expect government to provided standard conditions for such services? 

At the outset of the expansion this market was greeted with suspicion and concern, but many of those concerns do not seem to have arisen. Much publicity was given to the prospect that services would increase underage drinking, and in some area of the country that has resulted in prosecutions. But there doesn’t appear to be an evidence base that links the availability of such services to the increase in under age drinking, except perhaps the study (Fletcher et al, quoted here) which surveyed young people and retailers in 15 small and midsize communities in Minnesota and Wisconsin and showed that 10% of 12th graders (16 to 18 yrs of age) reported purchasing alcohol delivered by a retailer to a home or individual in the past year.

Perhaps the absence of a consistent Licensing approach is only to be expected given the lack of reliable evidence to justify opposition. One would have thought that the immediacy of such services might be reflected in increased public disorder, domestic violence or even lead to a greater number of falls in the elderly, but there are seemingly few negative outcomes that can be directly attributable to home delivery services themselves. There have of course been some successful prosecutions of irresponsible retailers but maybe the lack of an evidence base to ban such services is a reflection of the complexity of the delivery model where sale occurs at a multiplicity of private venues.

I wonder whether the real question is not, do such services increase public disorder and public health problems, but are they needed in a world where many other sources of alcohol abound, or are home delivery services even socially desirable?  Can society achieve the level of control it needs to deliver acceptable public health outcomes if the law of the market is allowed to persist in this regard?

Comments

[Annemarie Ward]

For me this is a simple case of enabling!!!! A problem drinker in my life regulary phones taxi services to go and buy her alcohol and i see it as no different from that. A money making scam that will enable those not fit enough for a variety of alcohol induced reasons.
I cant imagine any other drug being delivered to your door, can you? Im sorry but my immediate reaction to this is one of horror, perhaps after i have given it consideration i may think differently.

[andrew j paterson]

how does our goverment try to tackle the alcohol problem in this country,o yes with 24 hour drinking and alcohol home delivery services.fantastic i dont even have to go out to kill myself,the grim reaper will come to me, at a price.for the alcoholic who is too weak or too ill to go and go get his own bottle of death,it will be brought to him and i thought that assisted suicide was illegal in this country ,but it seems its alive and well here as long as money changes hands,no questions asked.what person in their right mind would ring an alcohol delivery service at 3 in the morning unless they had a problem with alcohol.this service should be stopped before we start finding dead people in their homes who havent even stepped foot outside their door for days.

[james morris]

The increasing availability of alcohol is certainly a concern, as such services do make it uber-available, and perhaps to those who may be most likely to misuse it within the home.

It's reassuring to hear there have been some prosecutions, but I remember a report last year found that many licensing departments are not using their powers sufficiently. However I do think the government has a lot more work to do with the supermarkets and the industry in general as a top down approach and example for local authorities to follow.

[Edwin Etadafe]

Hi i'm Ed, I currently run my own 24hr alcohol delivery service, and hopefully should bring some balance to the proceeedings. On the point of alcohol abuse, no licensed and responsible person would ever deliver to someone who is drunk, it is illegal. The majority for people i delivery to are your every day hard working reasonable people who know their limits. I sell more bottles for wine to young professionals, and beer to students than anyone else. Members of the public who are perfectly able to obtain their own alcohol but due to either off license location or being slightly over the limit they are unable to get it themselves. Understandably the balance grey area comes in the form of alcoholics. I am lucky so far as I have not sold consistently to some one who I thought was an alcoholic because alcoholics can not afford the extra charge of my service. I understand that their is a burden of responsibility on my part and have sought to take every necessary measure in order to protect minors through constant ID checks, refuse drunk people, obtain a personal license and license from the council.

[Allan Brown]

Ed, thanks so much for contributing to this discussion, and I fully accept the point of view that there are responsible retailers providing a service that some people want. I would also have to make the point that after over thirty years as a Police Officer, I have met some really responsible licensees, it's just difficult to spot them when they all claim that they never sell to a drunk; somebody must be selling to them.

All substance abuse starts off as a matter of personal choice, and I hope you might acknowledge that alcoholism is not restricted to the poor and unemployed. Just because they live in a big house, or are young professionals doesn't mean they aren't alcoholics, and I won't even start the whole student binge drinking debate here.
This is a difficult call, but speaking personally I think the easiest solution would be to not have alcohol delivered. I do not want to stop you earning a living, but trying to tell the alcoholic from the healthy, or make some value judgments just highlights how difficult it is to get it right every time.