Policing and Crime Bill

My Lords, there is no question that the current licensing regime is insufficient to regulate alcohol sales. You need only to go out to any number of our town or city centres on a Friday or Saturday night to see that irresponsible and damaging drinking is a serious and growing problem, but not—I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Rosser—in responsibly run sports clubs. It is inevitable that a responsible club will look after its members and police the situation to ensure that it does not lose its licence, so I go a long way in agreeing with what the noble Lord has said. The Government cannot decide what they should do to address this problem. It is no good using a battleship anchor to anchor a dinghy—a point which the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, might have made. Over their time in government, we have seen the licensing laws relaxed to being almost non-existent, with local authorities having no control over the premises operating in their area. Now that the damage caused by policies such as 24-hour licences is being felt, the Government are struggling to come up with policies to address the natural consequences without being forced to admit that their entire licensing structure needs review. The Government’s consultation on the conditions that might be imposed shows how little they understand the problem. It included, for example, a suggestion that retailers should use robust age-verification systems—a suggestion that rang rather hollowly with an industry that launched the Challenge 25 scheme in January, which set an industry best-practice standard that anyone who appears to be under 25 should be asked for age verification. This launch was rapidly followed by a Home Office announcement that the old system of Challenge 21 should be made mandatory. Rather than freeing local authorities to respond to the challenges that they are experiencing on the ground, the Government have removed any possibility of seeing these proposals being implemented in a proportional, targeted manner. They clearly have decided not to trust local authorities to use their discretionary powers wisely, but are resorting to top-down, centralised micromanagement. Turning to the amendment proposed by the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, I like the amended version much more than her previous one. I agree entirely that the sale of alcohol at below cost prices is a serious problem. If I were to quibble, it would be that the amendment does not go quite far enough, as it is Conservative Party policy that the sale of alcohol at below cost price should be banned outright. In Committee, the Minister came back with a pretty unsatisfactory response, which he has followed with a truly baffling letter. In Committee, I was able to agree with him that cheap alcohol is only part of the problem, although I should like to point out that, as the Scottish Government have realised, it is a very serious part. What I find extraordinary is the Minister’s insistence that, although there is clear evidence of low prices being a cause of binge drinking, the recession is to be used as an excuse for not taking action. Supermarkets are in the business of making profit. If they use alcohol as a loss leader, it must be because extremely low-cost alcohol encourages people to buy other goods that they otherwise would not consider. Removing such irresponsible offers would save householders money, as well as immeasurably improving their health. Similarly, the Government expressed concern for responsible drinkers. I agree with that concern, but we are clearly not talking about responsible drinkers; we are talking about people buying a crate of super-strength lager, or vodka, as the noble Baroness said, at rock bottom prices. How that is meant to equate to responsible drinking, I simply do not understand. The drop in alcohol prices over the past 30 years has meant that we are returning to a Hogarth-like situation where it is cheaper to buy a strong alcoholic drink than a non-alcoholic alternative. With such incentives, it is no surprise that so many people drink irresponsibly.