Alcohol Policy UK

Scotland's Licensing Act evaluation indicates progress - lessons for England?

An evaluation of Scotland's Licensing 2005 Act has been released, reporting positive impacts such as fewer irresponsible promotions and benefits of an appointed Licensing Standards Officer (LSO) for each council.

Download the Licensing (Scotland) Act Evaluation Final Report.pdf 

Scotland's Licensing Act came into effect in September 2009 and outlaws promotions providing alcohol free of charge, or at a discounted price on the purchase of one or more drinks. It also bans licensed premises from offering happy hours, drinking games or speed drinking deals.

The report also found that mandatory training for LSOs, Board members and trade staff has increased knowledge and standards of professional practice. However the report also identified a number of challenges and less successful aspects, including limited progress on off-sales and the public health objective.

Dr Evelyn Gillan, Chief Executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland said in a press release:

"The Licensing Act has reduced irresponsible promotions in pubs and clubs, but cheap, high strength alcohol is still being sold in off-sales, particularly supermarkets. To address this, we need minimum pricing implemented without further delay."

In 2011 Alcohol Focus Scotland and the Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) released a report 'Re-thinking Licensing', calling for licensing boards to make more effective use of licensing legislation and outlining ideas to promote the public health objective.

NHS Scotland also recently released a report which found the Alcohol (Scotland) Act, which included a ban on multi-buy promotions, was associated with an overall 2.6% decrease in off-trade alcohol sales.

Lessons for England?

In England new licensing powers have been in effect since last year as part of the the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act (PRSA) 2011. The changes included councils becoming 'responsible authorities' but options to implement Late Night Levys or Early Morning Restriction Order (EMROs) have not yet been taken up.

A number of toolkits and guidance documents have since been released to try and support local action, including developing effective public health responses. However with public health absent from England's licensing act core objectives, progress will rely on good data sharing to improve responses to existing objectives.

However Liverpool council have recently reported cracking down on off-licenses selling cheap alcohol using a Cumulative Impact Policy (CIP) approach. CIPs, sometimes known as saturation zones or stress areas, are deisgnated areas where new applications or longer hours are typically prevented. See here for local CIP guidance from Southwark.

All Home Office licensing guidance can be accessed here, including revised guidance issued under section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003 and amended guidance on the late night levy [pdf].

What's the future for the Late Night Levy & EMRO?

Since October 2012, Local Authorities have had the power to introduce a Late Night Levy (LNL) on premises opening after midnight under the PRSA 2011. The Levy is intended as a means of raising a contribution towards police and council accrued costs of the late-night economy.

However likely use of the Levy looks uncertain. Similarly no areas appear to have yet committed to use of Early Morning Restriction Orders (EMROs) to restrict the sale of alcohol between midnight and 6am.

According to a report in the Morning Advertiser, just 1% of councils say they plan to introduce either a LNL or EMRO, with over three quarters reportedly ruling them outaccording to a survey of 363 councils. A number of Local Authorities are however consulting on the use of the powers, such as Newcastle City Council and Milton Keynes. Blackpool and Hartlepool are understood to be considering EMROs.

A number of reasons for reluctance over the use of the powers seem apparent, ranging from insufficient expected revenue from the LNL, to legal concerns over being the first to implement new legislation. The Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR) have reportedly set up a 'fighting fund' to cover the cost of legal challenges against EMROs or the levy. In a BBC radio discussion, Brigid Simmonds of the BBPA argued that pubs would suffer if the on trade are further targeted, pointing out 70% of alcohol is now sold off-trade.

Cllr Brad Smith, Chairman of Bexley Council's Licensing Committee said "There are not a significant number of licensed premises which would be affected [in Bexley]... as little as only £1,000 per year would be raised". He emphasised the council had a strong process of using robust licence reviews on individual premises causing problems. In Great Yarmouth an EMRO was reportedly avoided when premises agreed to earlier voluntary closure of 4am from 6am.

History repeats?

In 2008 powers came in under the 2006 Violent Crime Reduction Act allowing Local Authorities to implement 'Alcohol Disorder Zones' (ADZs). ADZs were introduced to allow local authorities to impose charges on licensed premises to pay for the costs of addressing alcohol-related problems, but warnings proved true and none were ever implemented, though other powers within the 2006 act were more widely utilized. Will the LNL and EMRO be the new ADZ , or with the integration of public health within Local Authorities, is a "re-balancing" of the licensing act underway?

See www.gov.uk/alcohol-licensing or www.alcoholpolicy.net/licensing/ for licensing guidance and information.

Steve.morton@blackpool.gov.uk

News and updates Mar 2013: minimum pricing plans in doubt; UK health bodies support 'statement of concern' over industry; other news

The Government has emphasised it is yet to confirm its decision on minimum unit pricing (MUP) as Home Office minister Jeremy Brown said the Government were listening to "powerfull arguments on both sides" following the recent consultation. The Home Office website still states it "will introduce a minimum unit price for alcohol" - but for how long?

Last week fresh reports that the Prime Minister had u-turned on minimum unit pricing emerged, suggesting he had given in to pressure from a number of cabinet ministers. However speaking in the House of Commons, David Cameron insisted he was "determined" to deal with cheap alcohol. Health bodies urged the Government to stand firm on MUP.

Global 'Statement of Concern' against alcohol producers involvement in policy

Last month a number of UK organisations backed a  Statement of Concern' (pdf) sent to the World Health Organization (WHO) after thirteen of world’s largest alcohol producers announced commitments to support the WHO’s Global Strategy.

However the statement said that based on alcohol producer's "lack of support for effective alcohol policies... and their lobbying against effective public health measures" a united public health response against industry involvement was needed. The Global Alcohol Policy Alliance (GAPA) are calling for individuals to endorse the statement by sending a name, title, affiliation and country to gapa@ias.org.uk.

Other news

A selection of other recent news is highlighted below. For full round ups of media and news reports follow Drugscope Daily or the LAPE alcohol e-shot.

The Department of Health are 'working' with drinks industry to add calorie information to labels - Guardian report. The controversial 'Responsibility Deal' said in 2011 it would "provide simple and consistent information as appropriate in the off-trade" including calorie content.

Can politicians save Britain's pubs? asks a BBC report. It explores a range of challenges facing the decline of the pub, including the smoking ban and imbalanced beer taxes compared with the off-trade.

'Beer googles' are a myth, but the dis-inhibitor effect is key says a scientist according to a Telegraph report. "Alcohol switches off the rational and decision making areas of the brain while leaving the areas to do with sexual desire relatively intact, and so this explains beer goggles."

Brighton and Hove Council are considering whether to ask parents to sign contracts pledging not to give their children alcohol - BBC. Alcohol Concern said parents were often the main source of alcohol for underage drinkers and alcohol posed significant health as well as safety risks to young people, urging parents to support alcohol-free childhoods in line with CMO guidance.

Plans to film binge drinkers  in Cardiff and show them footage of their drunken behaviour to help them change their ways will go ahead - BBC report.

Doctors call for pregnant women to be tested for alcohol intake - Channel 4 news. The news was in response to the FASD Trust publishing recommendations for medical staff to tackle foetal alcohol disorder caused by drinking alcohol during pregnancy - BBC.

Britain sobers up as drinkers cut back on wine and spirits according to projections that suggest the country will drink millions fewer bottles of wine and spirits over the next few years - Telegraph. The news contrasts with recent media coverage of research on adults under-estimating their consumption - see our recent guest post.

'Alcohol problems in the criminal justice system' WHO guidance released

The World Health Organization (WHO) have released a document outlining the scale of the link between alcohol and offending, and the missed opportunities to address alcohol misuse within the Criminal Justice System and prisons in particular.

Download 'Alcohol problems in the criminal justice system: an opportunity for
intervention' [pdf]

The document describes an integrated model of care for alcohol problems in prisoners, with elements for best practice. The model starts with assessment of prisoners’ alcohol problems, using a validated screening tool, the WHO Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), and calls for interventions tailored to prisoners’ specific needs.

Other reports have previously made calls for further attention and action to address alcohol-related offending needs. In 2011 the Centre for Mental Health published the report A Label for Exclusion: Support for alcohol-misusing offenders

In 2010 the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) published comprehensive Alcohol Interventions Guidance for probation staff on the effective commissioning, management and delivery of a range of interventions for alcohol misusing offenders.

See here for relevant bulletins from Findings bank and here for further Offender Health publications and links on the Alcohol Learning Centre.

'Public health and alcohol licensing in England' LGA briefing

The Local Government Association (LGA) have published guidance on Public health and alcohol licensing in England.

Under new licensing measures councils have greater powers in relation to licensing decisions, and health bodies are now a 'responsible authority'. The briefing aims to place health bodies' new role in alcohol licensing in a strategic context, and to provide guidance to those who will be delivering the responsible authority role.

The guidance outlines how health authorities can consider playing an active part in licensing decisions, despite not being able to influence licensing based on health grounds. However health-related data, such as A&E or ambulance collected data may be useful under the existing licensing objectives such as the prevention of crime and disorder. It also outlines the potential for health based decisions in 'cumulative impact' areas as proposed in the current alcohol strategy consultation.

See here for an e-learning course on A&E data sharing and data sharing guidance. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) recently released an alcohol public health briefing for local authorities.

The LGA have also published recent guidance including:

• Police Crime Commissioner (PCC) NTE Briefing
• LGA Licensing Policy Statement Template
• Blackpool council and Police partnership case study for PCCs

The LGA are also hosting a series of events including: Councils role in tackling drugs and alcohol harm (17th January), Late-night levy workshop (22 January - LGA members only planning on introducing a levy) and a Licensing Conference (5 February).

'Protecting People, Promoting Health: A public health approach to violence prevention for England'

A new report has been released by the North West Public Health Observatory (NWPHO):

'Protecting People, Promoting Health: A public health approach to violence prevention for England' [pdf]

'The report describes the major roles public health and health care services can play in reducing levels of violence across the country alongside their functions in dealing with the impacts of violence on health. The documents contain new figures on the cost of violence, estimating national costs to the NHS of £2.9 billion annually and a wider cost to society of £29.9 billion each year.

The report draws on the latest evidence that many of the key risk factors that make individuals, families and communities vulnerable to violence are changeable. Interventions are now available to reduce violence through improving childhood and by adapting the cultures and environments in which we live, learn and work. The report details:

• The extent and nature of violence
• Its impact on short and long term health and wellbeing, education and antisocial behaviour
• Risk and protective factors for involvement in violence
• The range of evidence based approaches we now have for preventing violence
• Related national policy and programmes'

As recently reported, an e-learning resource - Reducing Violence in your Community: Emergency Department Datasharing - was released alongside an ED Datasharing report and a number of data sharing case studies.

The Department of Health also recently released broader guidance on Information Sharing to Tackle Violence (pdf). It highlights how Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) can reduce violence in their community by encouraging A&Es to collect and share information on time, type and location of assault.

Reducing violence through data: Emergency Department data sharing e-learning; DH Guidance on information sharing

A&E data sharing e-learning

An e-learning resource - Reducing Violence in your Community: Emergency Department Datasharing - has been released to support data sharing between the Accident and Emergency Departments (EDs) and Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs). In addition, an ED Datasharing report and a number of data sharing case studies are available.

The 30 minute e-learning course is designed to support better understanding of what information sharing is and how it can be used to support violence reduction. It may be useful for ED staff - from receptionists to consultants, CSP staff - from managers to analysts, Police and Crime Commissioners, Directors of Public Health, Staff in Clinical Commissioning Groups or Health Wellbeing Boards.

Guidance on information sharing to reduce violence

The Department of Health have released broader guidance on Information Sharing to Tackle Violence (pdf). It highlights how Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) can reduce violence in their community by encouraging A&Es to collect and share information on time, type and location of assault.

It identifies that CSPs, made up of local authorities, the Police and other local agencies, can share information to identify where violence is happening and inform local interventions to tackle it. It suggests interventions such as restricting alcohol licensing and targeting policing can have a big impact on community safety.

Securing and sharing good local data has long been a key challenge of effective local alcohol strategy to reduce related crime and disorder. As of this year, health authorities have also become a 'responsible authority' for local licensing decisions and the guidance states:

"Health bodies can present health-related evidence (where relevant to the licensing objectives), such as data on violence-related A&E attendances and ambulance callouts, to licensing authorities." (p.7)

Importantly health is still not a licensing objective, therefore any evidence still has to meet existing objectives such as prevention of crime and disorder. Many health authorities appear to have been struggling to contribute any new data to the process - alcohol-related A&E data has historically been difficult to collect, and ambulance of police data often not specific or detailed enough. The "Cardiff model" of A&E data sharing (or full report) was considered a groundbreaking project in this area.

A list of Home Office factsheets on the licensing changes are available.

London alcohol reports: Alcohol consumption in the night-time economy; Alcohol treatment pathways and outcomes

Two new alcohol reports for London have been released:

Alcohol Consumption in the Night Time Economy (NTE)

A new report from GLAEconomics assesses the most effective ways to mitigate costs associated with alcohol in the NTE. It is combined with an economic tool which estimates pros and cons for each London Local Authority.

• Section 1: What is the night-time economy (NTE) and what are the associated problems?
• Section 2: Why does the NTE generate these costs?
• Section 3: What to consider before developing a NTE policy?
• Section 4: What policy tools can reduce the problems associated with the NTE?

Download Alcohol consumption in the night-time economy.pdf or the summary and methodology.pdf. You can also access a pros and cons tool.xls. A recent report offered guidance on tackling NTE alcohol problems, or see our NTE categories list of posts.

Alcohol treatment: pathways and outcomes

In 2011 a London Alcohol Practitioners Forum event explored the variation between alcohol treatment pathways in London and how these could be improved. The report explores pathways, examples and outcome measures including Payment by Results (PbR): 

Alcohol treatment: pathways and outcomes - a report of the practitioners event supported by the GLA, LDAN, LDAPF and other partners [pdf]

NICE has produced alcohol pathways resources to support commissioners as part of wider set of resources. In 2009 the Department of Health produced 'Local routes: alcohol treatment pathways guidance'. Further local examples of pathways development can be found on the Alcohol Learning Centre local initiatives pages.

'Community Alcohol Networks: A Practitioners Toolkit' - Lancashire partnerhsip approach to young people's drinking

In Lancashire, Community Alcohol Networks (CANs) have been developed by the Trading Standards Alcohol and Tobacco team, in conjunction with Lancashire Constabulary, to adopt a partnership approach to reduce alcohol-related crime and problems amongst young people.

Lancashire have released a CAN Practitioner Toolkit and a CAN Problem Oriented Partnership report.

The project was established with the aims of reducing young people's access to alcohol in order to reduce risky drinking and alcohol fuelled anti social behaviour. It also aimed to reduce problems by tackling proxy purchasing through enhanced enforcement activity in identified hotspots. In addition it aimed to raise awareness of alcohol related health and social issues amongst young people, parents and the wider community.

Over 12 weeks the Community Alcohol Networks were claimed to have achieved:

• 51 per cent reduction in alcohol fuelled anti social behaviour
• violent crime has reduced by 22 per cent
• criminal damage has seen an 11 per cent reduction

The approach appears similar to Community Alcohol Partnerships (CAPs) which aims to tackle public underage drinking through co-operation between alcohol retailers and local stakeholders, such as Trading Standards, police, local authority licensing teams, schools and health networks. See here for a presentation on Islington Community Alcohol Partnership.

See here for a bank of local alcohol initaitives or an Alcohol Concern factsheet Alcohol, Crime and Disorder in the Night-time Economy [pdf], written by Dr Phil Hadfield (University of Leeds) and Dr Andrew Newton (University of Huddersfield).

Ten communities recieve DCLG funding to tackle binge and underage drinking

The 10 communities that will receive funding for work to tackle binge and underage drinking have been announced by Communities and Local Government. The fund was opened for bids earlier this year by Baroness Newlove, the government's Champion for Active, Safer Communities. 

The CLG press release states:

Over the next two years these innovative grassroots projects, backed by local authorities, police and retailers, are expected to deliver real results to end the fallout of problem drinking. Other communities will hopefully be inspired to follow their lead. The projects will address separate issues that are the greatest challenges in their neighbourhoods, with measures of their success that will include:

• a reduction in the number of anti-social behaviour incidents related to alcohol consumption
• fewer A&E admissions to local hospitals or fewer ambulance call outs as a result of drinking
• the consumption of alcohol by young people reducing to safe levels; and
• a reduction in purchasing of alcohol made on behalf of under 18s ("proxy purchasing").

Among the projects that will receive funding are:

• The City of Lincoln. Among their proposals is the development of social media to link up evening safety wardens, street pastors and local police to better address weekday problem drinking and anti-social behaviour in the city centre. They will tackle the repercussion of the rapid expansion of students and visitors to the city centre.
• The local community in Moseley, Birmingham that wants to establish a lasting solution to the stubborn issue of street drinking and its associated problems of begging, littering and rough sleeping by giving local people a direct say in deciding how their project develops and how the budget is spent.
• Newcastle that wants to work with young people and their families to address crime and anti-social behaviour in two inner suburbs: Elswick; and Benwell and Scotswood, where local surveys suggest that a third of people polled, consider drunk and rowdy behaviour to be a problem.
• Shropshire, whose project will focus on five of the county's public parks which experience seasonal summertime issues around underage drinking and anti-social behaviour. The Shropshire Safer Stronger Communities Board will work with local police, trading standards and retailers to confiscate alcohol from minors, tackle proxy buying and work with young people on developing positive park-based activities.

The DCLG report, Building Safe, Active Communities: strong foundations by local people sets out  tackling alcohol harms as one of Baroness Newlove's key priorities. A report which captures progress on innovative projects to make communities safer was also released earlier this year.

The fund was included in the recent Government Alcohol Strategy which committed to introducing minimum unit pricing. However the strategy has also been criticised of being overly crime and disorder focused, with insufficient attention to treatment and prevention.