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Alcohol Strategy

With permission, Mr. Speaker, I would like to make a statement on the new cross-Government alcohol strategy. Most people have no problem with alcohol. They enjoy a drink and it is one of life's pleasures, but we all know there is a significant minority in this country who drink dangerously and who cause disproportionate harm. Almost 1 million violent crimes and 1.2 million hospital admissions each year are alcohol-related. Just under half of all violent crime is connected to alcohol and drunken brawls and disorder have made many town centres no-go areas for law-abiding citizens. The effects of such dangerous drinking on crime, communities, children and families are clear, but it need not be like this. Alcohol can be consumed responsibly, a drink can be enjoyable, not dangerous, and a thriving night-time economy can be built on the basis of a sensible drinking culture. In Durham, a ““Best Bar None”” accreditation scheme promotes responsible pub management. Licensed premises must meet minimum standards, for example on the skills and knowledge of their bar staff, to gain approval. They are encouraged not to serve beer to drunks and to build a good relationship with the police and local agencies. After three years, licensees reported a 75% increase in trade, a 50% increase in city centre footfall and an 87% reduction in violent crime. Experiences like that show that city centres can become more attractive places to visit at night if they allow sensible drinking rather than a licensing free-for-all. Such schemes should be encouraged, but any progress will for ever be overshadowed unless we stop the flow of cheap alcohol. In some shops and supermarkets, drinks are now so heavily discounted that it is possible to buy a can of lager for as little as 20p or a two-litre bottle of cider for just £1.69. That means that many people now drink excessively at home and that many pre-load before they go out. Two thirds of 17 to 30-year-olds recently arrested in one city said they had pre-loaded before going out, and pre-loaders are estimated to be two-and-a-half times more likely to be involved in violence than other drinkers. So we need to deal with the dangerous drinkers, crack down on the irresponsible businesses and stem the tide of cheap alcohol. That means providing punishment and treatment for those who have shown that they cannot drink sensibly, tightening our licensing laws and cracking down on those who sell alcohol to children or drunks. It also means, for the first time, putting a sensible price on alcohol. Those who have a particular problem with alcohol need specialist help to change their behaviour, so we will provide better treatment for dependent drinkers. We will develop alcohol interventions in prisons and will make alcohol treatment requirements imposed by the courts more effective. Dangerous drinkers who are convicted of alcohol-related crimes will have their unqualified right to drink removed through piloted sobriety schemes. These schemes will involve breathalysers and specialist electronic tags to monitor offenders' alcohol levels and ensure they remain sober. From April, pilots using conditional cautions will launch in five areas—Westminster, St Helens, Hull, Plymouth and Cardiff. Further pilots will be launched shortly to tackle more serious offenders using community orders. We will legislate to support the roll-out of these schemes nationwide should they prove successful. As well as tackling irresponsible drinkers, we must also help local areas to tackle irresponsible businesses by giving them greater powers over licensing. The Government's reforms to policing, health and the criminal justice system will help to put power in the hands of local people, but we also want to give local areas specific powers to deal with alcohol-related problems. New powers in the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 will come into force on 25 April. They include powers to make it easier for local agencies to refuse, revoke or impose conditions on a licence and to close down premises that sell alcohol to children or contribute to crime and disorder. They will double to £20,000 the maximum fine for persistently selling alcohol to children, and anyone with an interest will be able to object to new licensing applications no matter where they live. Later this year, new early morning alcohol restriction orders will give local areas the power to stop alcohol sales late at night if they are causing problems by restricting opening and closing hours, and we will introduce powers for local areas to control the density of licensed premises. We will also bring in powers to allow local areas to place a new late-night levy on businesses that sell alcohol late into the night so that businesses that benefit from late-night drinking will contribute towards the cost of late-night policing. The alcohol industry also has an important role to play. This strategy promises to support and free up businesses that are acting responsibly. Most British pubs promote a good drinking environment and are the safest and friendliest places to have a drink, so we will build on the existing responsibility deal to drive greater industry action to prevent alcohol misuse. For example, 35 leading drinks companies are today launching a pledge to give consumers a wider choice of lower-strength products and smaller servings with the aim of taking 1 billion units of alcohol out of the market by 2015. Individual, local and industry actions are all important to dealing with problem drinkers and problem pubs, but dealing with problem pricing can be done only by central Government. We know that the availability of cheap alcohol helps to fuel binge drinking. Strong evidence from a number of studies conducted in the UK, Europe, America, Canada, New Zealand and elsewhere shows that alcohol consumption is closely linked to the price of alcohol. Those studies also showed that increasing the price of the very cheapest alcohol does the most to reduce heavy drinking. There is also evidence that young people are particularly sensitive to changes in price. Increasing alcohol prices lowers their alcohol consumption. That is why we have already taken action to tackle the availability of cheap alcohol. We have stopped high-strength white ciders from qualifying for lower rates of duty, we have introduced a new higher rate of duty for high-strength beers and we have brought in a new lower rate for lower-strength beers. Those significant steps forward will help better to match prices to alcoholic strength, but the problem is now so acute that we need to go further. We will therefore introduce a minimum unit price for alcohol. This will ensure for the first time that alcohol can be sold only at a sensible and responsible price, stopping the deep discounting and bargain basement sales that drive binge drinking. We will consult over the coming months on the level of the minimum unit price and will seek to introduce legislation as soon as possible. We do not now intend to go ahead with the proposed ban on the sale of alcohol below the cost of duty and VAT. Most drinks will not be affected by minimum unit pricing, but the cheap vodka, super-strength cider and special brew lagers will go up in price. The dangerous drinks will become more expensive but the price of a normal pint in the local pub will not increase by a single penny. We will also consult on introducing a ban on multi-buy promotions in shops, such as ““buy one, get one free”” deals that push people to buy more alcohol than they want. We do not intend to apply this ban to pubs, bars and restaurants, which, as I have already said, offer a more controlled drinking environment. We want to encourage these premises to survive and thrive. This strategy is targeted explicitly at dangerous drinkers, problem pubs, irresponsible shops and harmful drinks. Those who enjoy a quiet drink or two have nothing to fear from our proposals. The local pub has nothing to fear and the responsible off-licence has nothing to fear. We will help to tackle problem drinkers, we will help local areas to deal with local licensing problems, we will encourage the alcohol industry to act responsibly and we will put a stop to the easy availability of cheap booze that has blighted Britain for too long. This is a comprehensive strategy to take back our town centres from the drunken thugs and restore them to the law-abiding majority. I commend this statement to the House.