News: Proposed new laws threaten alcohol promotions

The government has announced that it is planning to ban “irresponsible” price-based promotions as part of its consultation on tackling England’s binge-drinking culture.

Public health minister Dawn Primarolo (pictured) has unveiled a consultation document that could lead to new legislation covering the way that alcohol is promoted in England.

It attacked grocery retailers and operators of pubs, bars and clubs for running promotions that encouraged irresponsible drinking, such as happy hours and “women drink free”.

A review of alcohol industry standards by business consultancy KPMG, endorsed by the Department of Health, was also published. This reported that there was “evidence of poor practice in the promotion of cheap alcohol, giving strong incentives to drinkers for bulk purchase”.

This prompted the Department of Health to warn that it was looking at making voluntary codes on responsible drinking mandatory, which would impose restrictions on promotional activities such as sampling, point-of-sale and price promotions.

The new legislation could also impose rules on labelling of alcoholic products and ban common practices such as displaying alcohol by the checkout.

The Department of Health report stated: “It follows that preventing retailers from offering certain types of promotion is not an objective that could be delivered through a voluntary code. It would be necessary to impose on retailers a separate statutory requirement not to operate such promotions.”

However, Primarolo added one reassuring note: “It is right to consider ways to tackle irresponsible practices, but we must also ensure that any measures do not unduly penalise those consumers who benefit from legitimate promotions responsibly.”

A review being conducted by the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) at Sheffield University, which was commissioned by the Home Office, also published its preliminary findings. It reported that price significantly influenced young people and those drinking at heavier levels, although it had less of an impact on moderate and occasional drinkers.

The Department of Health said it would examine the range of options for regulating or restricting how alcohol is priced and promoted after the second phase of the KPMG review was published later this year.

Primarolo said: “The drinks industry has a vital role to play if we are to change the country’s attitudes to alcohol. Some sections of the industry are sticking to the voluntary codes, others are blatantly ignoring them. This consultation will decide whether legally binding regulations for retailers and manufacturers to promote sensible drinking are the way forward.

“Around a quarter of the population drink to a harmful level. These people could be drinking themselves into an early grave – we need the drinks industry to give them the help and information needed to drink at a safer level.”

Home Office minister Tony McNulty added: “At best the standards are being applied in fragmented way, at worst in many places alcohol is being sold and marketed irresponsibly. We now need a new set of standards and over the next few months we will work intensively with industry representatives and other interested groups to breathe new life into the system. We have also made it quite clear that if necessary we will introduce legislation to make the new standards mandatory.”

As reported on SalesPromo.co.uk last month, the Scottish Government is planning to ban “buy one get one free” and other price promotions as part of a new crackdown on alcohol misuse. Its consultation document also included a proposal to set a minimum price at which a unit of alcohol could be sold in shops and pubs.