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4. Protection and controls
Aim:
- To reduce excessive drinking and harm to health.
- To reduce crime, nuisance and fear of crime relating to alcohol.
Key actions to date
- New Licensing Act passed by Parliament following the work of the Nicholson and Daniels Committees.
- Training in responsible serving practice provided to a further 7,145 people in the licensed trade through the AFS ServeWise programme.
- New legislative framework to tackle antisocial behaviour.
Licensing law
4.1 The Licensing (Scotland) Act was passed by Parliament on 16 November 2005 and has now been given Royal Assent. The new Act will reform Scotland's outdated licensing laws and is underpinned by five licensing objectives:
- preventing crime and disorder;
- securing public safety;
- preventing public nuisance;
- protecting and improving public health; and
- protecting children from harm.
4.2 The Act provides a platform to tackle both excessive drinking and underage drinking. There is a statutory presumption against 24 hour opening (except in exceptional circumstances) and tough action on irresponsible promotions in on and off sales. This includes, for on-sales, a ban on specific promotions such as "two for one" offers and promotions which encourage "speed drinking"; and a policy which ensures drinks have to be sold at the same price for a minimum of 72 hours. Licensing Boards will carry out new over provision policies, designating areas as "over provided for" if they are considered to have too many licensed premises or too many licensed premises of a certain kind. The Act places an emphasis on mandatory server training which will be specifically monitored by new Licensing Standards Officers.
4.3 In supporting the efforts to tackle underage drinking the Act requires all licensees to operate on a "no proof no sale" basis and on-sales premises that wish to allow access by children will be required to set out their plans for approval by the Licensing Board. In addition, offences related to under age drinking have been overhauled and updated.
4.4 Currently, the licensing laws do not provide an effective mechanism for local communities' concerns to be heard. The Act ensures that communities will have an active role in commenting on and helping to develop local policy and that anyone who wishes to object to a licence application can do so.
4.5 The future success of this new legislation will be greatly determined by the preparatory approach adopted by the new Licensing Boards and Licensing Forums. It will be essential that these boards and forums - along with local ADATs, communities and stakeholders - are supported in ensuring the public health and community engagement opportunities are fully realised on the lead up to its implementation.
Antisocial behaviour
4.6 New powers in the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004 are helping police and other agencies deal with antisocial behaviour where it is a significant, persistent and serious problem. These include powers to disperse groups from designated areas, close premises which have become the focus of antisocial behaviour, and issue fixed penalty notices for a range of low-level antisocial offences including being drunk and incapable in a public place, refusing to leave licensed premises on being requested to do so and consuming alcohol in a public place where drinking is prohibited through bye laws.
4.7 The Antisocial Behaviour Act places a statutory requirement on each local authority and relevant Chief Constable to prepare a strategy outlining how they will deal with antisocial behaviour in their area. Guidance on preparing strategies advises that the consultation process for developing the strategy includes community bodies that represent people adversely affected by antisocial behaviour. During 2004-08, the Executive is providing £120 million to Community Planning Partnerships through local authorities, for community wardens and other community based initiatives to tackle antisocial behaviour. Community Planning Partnerships are required to set out measurable outcomes that will be achieved with Executive funding.
Supply side practice
Alcohol Focus Scotland ServeWise
4.8 The Executive has continued to support the AFS ServeWise programme which provides training in responsible serving practice to licensees, those working in licensed premises and Licensing Board members. In the three years from April 2002 to March 2005, the programme provided training in responsible serving practice to 7,145 licensed trade persons across Scotland and increased the number of centres registered to deliver its training to 67.
Age restricted sales
4.9 Action has also been taken to restrict under age sales of alcohol. The Scottish Retail Consortium have worked with Young Scot to develop guidance for retailers on how to avoid underage sales. The guidance details the law on age restricted goods and provides advice to shop staff on how to avoid confrontational situations. All young people in Scotland aged 12-24 are being offered the Young Scot sponsored entitlement card which bears the PASS hologram. The Executive has funded a Trading Standards Officer to raise awareness of the card and all retailers are being encouraged to accept only cards bearing the PASS hologram as proof of age. The Young Scot sponsored card will be acceptable proof of age under the Licensing Act's "no proof no sale" policy.
Test purchasing
4.10 In February 2005 the Lord Advocate revised prosecution policy to allow for the test purchasing of tobacco and other age restricted goods by young people under the age of 18. In September 2005, following discussions with the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland ( ACPOS) and Scotland's Children's Commissioner for Children and Young People, the Lord Advocate indicated that he was satisfied, in principle, that test purchasing of alcohol by children and young people would be an effective means of enforcing the law in this area. An amendment was therefore made to the Licensing (Scotland) Bill at stage 3. The relevant section within the new legislation is section 105 of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, which states that it is not an offence for a child or young person to buy or attempt to buy alcohol if he/she is authorised to do so by the chief constable for the purposes of determining whether an offence is being committed in relation to the illegal sale of alcohol to a person under 18 years of age.
4.11 The relevant provisions of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 were commenced with effect from 1 June 2006 to make transitional provision for an alcohol test purchasing scheme now underway in Fife Constabulary. This scheme pilots the use of test purchasing as a means of enforcing the existing licensing arrangements as set out in the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976; and the aim of the pilot will be to trial test purchasing arrangements so that common procedures and operating protocols are developed that ensure test purchasing for alcohol is carried out safely, fairly and effectively for use by Scottish Police Forces in a Scottish context.
Alcohol at sporting events
4.12 Representations were made during the development of the Licensing Bill seeking a relaxation of the alcohol controls which apply to designated sporting events and the designated stadia at which they are played. We have concluded that it would not be appropriate to relax these controls which were introduced to improve public order and safety and which have worked well. We consider that they continue to play an essential part in reducing alcohol-related disorder and the risk to public safety in and around these events.
Future priorities
4.13 Action to control the supply of alcohol is designed to complement and work in tandem with communication and other preventative activity aimed at changing the culture of excessive drinking and underage drinking. This will include work with:
- Licensing Boards to tackle the overprovision of licensed premises and restrict unacceptable commercial activities which encourage excessive drinking;
- the alcohol industry and trade to promote further the responsible serving of alcohol, tackle alcohol-related harm, reduce underage sales, prevent irresponsible promotions and consider whether marketing strategies, including packaging, labelling and branding, are contributing to the excessive drinking culture;
- local authorities to ensure that public byelaws are effective in dealing with nuisance drinking in public; and
- the UK Government in the context of the English Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy to drive action on issues such as alcohol advertising, labelling, pricing and drink driving which have UK wide implications.
Specific actions:
In licensed premises
1. We will work with partners to support and extend the current test purchasing pilot on alcohol to all areas of Scotland in 2007.
2. Through the new licensing proposals, we will give Licensing Boards more power to control the spread of licensed premises and tackle both excessive and underage drinking by:
- providing Licensing Boards with a power to refuse licence applications in areas where there are already too many licensed premises;
- giving a far wider range of local people the rights and information to make objections and representations before a premises licence is granted;
- endorsing and promoting a national "no proof no sale" initiative for Scotland and ensuring that all licensed premises operate a "no proof no sale" policy by including this as a mandatory standard national condition of licence;
- introducting mandatory training for staff serving/selling alcohol and for personal licence holders;
- requiring on sales licensed premises to consider the suitability of their premises for access by children and fulfil minimum national licence conditions where they wish to welcome children; and
- taking action at national level to prevent irresponsible promotions in both on and off-sales premises.
The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 will be fully implemented by 2009.
3. We will work with partners, including the National Licensing Forum, to provide early guidance on the issue of over provision to help Licensing Boards tackle over supply.
4. We will continue to support the development of the new National Entitlement Card used in conjunction with Young Scot branding and the PASS proof of age logo.
5. The AFS ServeWise programme will aim to train a further 3000 people in responsible serving practice each year.
In the community
6. We will fund the appointment of a National Licensing Officer whose remit will be to support local Licensing Boards and Forums in ensuring the public health and community engagement opportunities, available under the new Licensing legislation, are fully realised in the lead up to full implementation.
7. We will combat alcohol-related crime and disorder, through the use of:
- fixed penalty notices to over 16s for a range of offences associated with irresponsible use of alcohol;
- new police powers to disperse groups and close or prohibit access to premises which have been the centre of persistent or serious nuisance or disorder, including licensed premises or drinking dens;
- additional police powers under the Licensing Bill to close premises;
- fixed penalty fines for low level drunk and disorderly behaviour;
- mediation services to help resolve, for example, disputes around noise and other forms of antisocial behaviour;
- targeted initiatives aimed at underage access and consumption of alcohol in hardest hit areas, through the Safer Scotland Anti-Violence Campaign; and
- partnership working with the Violence Reduction Unit and local Community Safety Partnerships to deliver innovative solutions to alcohol-related violence and disorder.
With the UK Government
8. We will work at Ministerial and official level with the UK Government and, where appropriate, the European Union, to develop actions which encourage the promotion of responsible drinking and develop approaches to product labelling and address concerns about irresponsible advertising and marketing by the alcohol industry. This will include work on safer forms of glass, support for effective codes of conduct to govern marketing practice, the provision of consumer-friendly information on the health risks of excessive alcohol consumption and a review of the impact of pre-mixed drinks on the drinking habits of young people.
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