With respect, the hon. Lady said both things and the record will show that. There was a consultation, as part of the alcohol strategy, on a new, light-touch authorisation to reduce burdens on ancillary sellers of alcohol. That is what we are discussing this afternoon. It was consulted on, comments were fed back and they have informed the way in which we have taken matters forward.
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I want to stress, as I did earlier, that this House now agrees in principle on this matter and the details of the scheme will be worked through in consultation, so Opposition Members and anybody else who wants to contribute will be able to do so. Although we will establish the principle this afternoon—if the House agrees, as I hope it will—we have not set out what we think should be the starting fee or the fee cap. We have not consulted on the details of powers of entry where they may be appropriate. We have not made any views known on the final decision about the maximum size of an accommodation provider. We have not yet given details on alcohol limits, which my hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East (James Duddridge) referred to earlier, because we are open to consultation on them. We have not yet given a definition of the eligible community group and so on. That is deliberate, because we want this to be open for consultation so that people can genuinely express their views and we can take them into account.
The hon. Lady is wrong to say that the measures have been tabled at the last minute, because they have not in the sense that they were subject to consultation as part of the alcohol strategy and the details will be resolved in a consultation exercise. I am afraid that her interpretation of the process is simply wrong. The Opposition are very keen to complain when the Government does not listen to people. We have been listening and that is why we have taken time to frame the measures in this particular way.
The hon. Lady complains, as the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull North (Diana Johnson), who is sitting further down the Opposition Front Bench, regularly
does—because it is written down on a piece of paper they are supposed to read out, I imagine—that the Government’s alcohol strategy is apparently in complete chaos, but it is the Opposition’s strategy that is in complete chaos. The hon. Member for Luton North complains—understandably, in some ways—about his concerns about alcohol harms, but which Government brought in the liberalising Licensing Act 2003, which made alcohol available in more places for longer than at any time since the first world war? The Labour party did that. Labour Members cannot have it both ways, but that is what they seem to be trying to do.
The hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull North usually complains about late-night levies, but she does not mention the alcohol disorder zones her Government brought in, none of which was taken up. The Opposition need to be a little more careful in their accusations.