Alcohol Policy UK

Licensing figures 2017: premises called to review - why the decline?

The Home Office recently released 2017 statistics on alcohol and late night refreshment licensing in England and Wales, showing a further small but steady rise in the total number of licensed premises. Reviews of premises potentially causing problems have continued to fall significantly, though the reasons behind this are still unclear.

As of 31 March 2017 there were 211,500 premises licences, a 1% increase of 1,100 compared with 31 March 2016. The Home Office reports this is a 'in line with the broadly increasing trend since 31 March 2008' when 195,800 were recorded.

As of 31 March 2017 there were 211,500 premises licences, a 1% increase of 1,100 compared with 31 March 2016. The Home Office reports this is a 'in line with the broadly increasing trend since 31 March 2008' when 195,800 were recorded.

News & updates July 2017: memory, diabetes benefit?, drunk in charge of a child, school exclusions & more

Selected news and media stories since the June roundup:

Supreme Court judges retired to consider the latest appeal against minimum pricing of alcohol in Scotland, reported BBC News whilst public health experts continued to put forward their case for the policy (eg in the Guardian and Independent). See our report here.

Pubs in 2017: diversify or demise?

Its no secret that the number of pubs has been declining for decades, long before the introduction of the smoking ban ten years ago. The changing picture of the nation's pubs though, like many alcohol policy areas, is both often politicised and complex.

Whilst pubs have been closing steadily since the 1980s, the total number of licensed premises has in fact been rising in recent years across both the on and off-trade. The profile of on-trade premises has diversified through the growth in restaurants and other non-pub and mixed service premises such as hotels. Meanwhile the pull of an ever widening price gap between on and off sales has been central to rising home drinking habits such as increasing wine consumption, particularity amongst women. Beer drinking though too has changed dramatically; in 2015 off-trade beer sales overtook pub and on-trade sales, declining from an 88% stronghold in 1980.

IAS Alert May 2017: licensing, treatment sector, inequalities, MUP 5 years on & more

The latest Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) Alcohol Alert: May 2017 is now available (here for PDF version). Read the editorial here and articles below:

• TOP STORY: UK alcohol laws should look Down Under to tackle crime and disorder
• Alcohol-related admissions continue to rise
• Poorest at greater risk of harm from heavy drinking, study finds
• Drug and alcohol treatment sector – on borrowed time?
• Loophole closed in underage drinking crackdown
• Police unit backs new approach to cut alcohol-related crime
• An open letter to ministers on the AudioVisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD)
• Just one alcoholic drink a day can increase breast cancer risk
• Minimum unit pricing, 5 years on
• Open letter to the candidates for Director General of WHO: UPDATE

News & updates May 2017: Lifeline charity future, mental health, glassing, breast cancer, alcohol on the radio & more

Selected media stories since the April roundup: 

Many newspapers reported on the latest ONS report on alcohol statistics for England (details in a previous post), with the Guardian highlighting teetotal young people, the Sun Blackpool and baby boomers, and the Daily Mail the 22% increase in alcohol-related hospital admissions over the past decade. APUK analysis here.

Tighten availability to reduce alcohol-related harms, say IAS & FARE report

A new report has called for tighter restrictions on alcohol availability to help address alcohol-related harms, including pressures on emergency departments, hospitals and the police.

The report Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere? [pdf] reviews fourteen alcohol licensing policies in Australia and the UK rating them for their effectiveness in reducing harm. It follows recent research identifying the extent of alcohol availability in England, and a recent call from the Lords Licensing Review Committee for a fundamental overhaul of the Act.

Alcohol availability in England: trends, patterns and policy implications

In this guest post, Colin Angus, a Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield, explores recent research on alcohol availability in England and considerations for policy.

A recent study from the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group highlights how widely available alcohol is in England, and how this has changed in the last decade. The study explores the availability of alcohol through measuring travel distances to the nearest outlet selling alcohol and counting the number of places where alcohol could be bought within walking distance (1km). Researchers looked at how availability had changed between 2003 and 2013, particularly changes in the type of outlets where alcohol was sold, and how availability was related to socioeconomic deprivation.

The key findings include:

IAS Alert April 2017: alcohol marketing and sport, licensing, pregnancy & more

The latest Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) Alcohol Alert: April 2017 is now available (here for PDF version). Read the editorial here and articles below:

• TOP STORY: New alcohol marketing report suspects foul play
• Lords: Licensing Act “needs major overhaul”
• DWP: Alcohol dependency a major burden on workless families
• UK women most likely to drink alcohol during pregnancy
• Alcohol media campaigns focus mainly on short-term harms
• Cut Scots’ alcohol consumption by 10%, say campaigners
• Violent crime down; alcohol-related weekend casualties peak
• Open letter to the candidates for Director-General of WHO
• ALCOHOL SNAPSHOT: 85% of people live within 500m of an outlet selling alcohol

Lords Licensing Committee review calls for major overhaul

The Lords Licensing Act 2003 committee has published its findings on the controversial legislation calling for a fundamental overhaul of the Act.

The report makes a long list of recommendations, notably that planning committees - seen as more coherent and efficient - should assume responsibility for licensing administration.

The Chairman of the Committee, Baroness McIntosh of Pickering, said setting up new licensing committees had been "a mistake and a missed opportunity" given the existing planning system. She also explained how the Committee was "shocked by some of the evidence it received", and descriptions of the use of the Act included being akin to 'something of a lottery', 'lacking formality', and 'indifferent', with some 'scandalous misuses of the powers of elected local councillors'.

Alcohol licensing: a guide for public health teams

A Public Health England (PHE) web resource outlines the objectives, legal framework and local practice examples of public health involvement in local licensing.

In 2013 changes to the Licensing Act saw public health included as a 'responsible authority', intended to encourage participation in local licensing processes. However unlike in Scotland, the protection of public health is not a licensing objective, so any representations relating to new premises or those under review need to relate to the existing objectives.

The web resource includes chapters on:

• Licensing and public health
• Licensing policy
• Cumulative impact policies
• Applications for licenses
• Data and information tools
• Primary research to support the licensing process
• Further information