United Kingdom: Labour’s 24-hour drinking policy has made crime around the clock a problem and has done NOTHING for trade, major report finds
Around the clock drinking has ‘sucked up’ police resources, a report found
The liberalised laws have led to a ‘seismic shift’ in drinking patterns
Communities claims their interests are being trampled over by business
Drinking-related hospital admissions have increased since the law changed
Source: Daily Mail
By Ben Spencer
17 March 2016
Labour’s 24-hour drinking policy made crime an all-night problem and failed to boost trade, a major report has found.
Allowing alcohol to be served around the clock has ‘sucked up’ police resources and led to a ‘seismic shift’ in drinking patterns, health experts and police say.
The authors warn today that the laws also allowed businesses to trample over the interests of communities.
Tony Blair wanted to encourage a European-style cafe culture by scrapping the 11pm closing time, file photo
The rules were brought in by Tony Blair in 2005, supposedly to create a European cafe culture and end issues caused by a rush at 11pm pub closing time.
The Mail repeatedly warned of the potential problems as part of the Say No To 24-Hour Drinking campaign, highlighting that the laws would fuel violence and late-night hospital admissions.
Today’s damning report by the Institute of Alcohol Studies confirms that the policy has failed.
It says that later opening times have not raised revenues, but simply spread income for bars and pubs over a longer period.
Crime and disorder have increased in the early hours, requiring more officers to work all night. The report comes after figures revealed in December that drinking-specific hospital admissions had risen 64 per cent since the licensing laws were relaxed.
Lead author Jon Foster said: ‘While the Licensing Act clarified the way licensing works, it has also caused significant problems, increasing the demand on police in the small hours and giving councils no effective way to limit the high concentrations of venues which are so often associated with crime and disorder.
‘Over the last ten years business interests have too often won out over local communities. Very late closing times suck up police resources and mean that there are less officers available to do community police work during the rest of the week.
‘Local councils could help themselves more by paying closer attention to the Act and case law in order to use licensing more assertively, but there is also a need for the Government to better support councils against challenge from the licensed trade.’
Tony Hogg, police and crime commissioner for Cornwall, said: ‘The relaxation of licensing hours ten years ago has contributed to a seismic shift in drinking behaviours. Alongside the later opening of venues we have seen the growth of the phenomenon of pre-loading.
‘People are increasingly entering our town centres much later at night and often having already consumed large amounts of alcohol at home. This can make them particularly vulnerable and places significant pressures on policing and on wider support networks like street pastors.’ The report, based on interviews with 70 licensing officers, police officers, health experts and councillors, recommends set opening hours for off licences and increasing licensing fees so councils have more power to tackle issues.
It suggests giving licensing boards the power to refuse applications on public health grounds.
Tony Page, of the Local Government Association, said rejecting licences for health reasons would reduce NHS costs.
Andrew Gwynne MP, Labour’s public health spokesman, blamed the current Government for having ‘no strategy for dealing with alcohol abuse, and has put the interests of alcohol producers ahead of the nation’s health’.