COMMENT: Mandatory Conditions – an exercise in political posturing?

As I write the government has just announced the detail on mandatory licence conditions.

Whilst it is easy to argue that some premises could and should raise their retail standards, what is also clear is that these conditions are primarily a politically-motivated attempt to be seen to be doing something regarding alcohol related violence and disorder.  Crucially the code is also an exercise in machismo to see who is toughest (Labour or the Tories) on alcohol policy.  One only has to look at the way the introduction of these measures was spun by the Home Office press people.  Reading the press release it is implied that all operators who breach one of the conditions will be spending the next six months in jail.  This is clearly a nonsense and really not helpful for all of us who are trying to get some good sense in this complex debate.

The shame of these conditions is that the legislators are far more concerned about how these measures play in the media, then how they will actually create positive change in licensed premises.  Another key reason why these measures won’t create a marked reduction in alcohol related violence and disorder is that most of the measures are already in place.

The new condition on licenses make it mandatory for operators to offer free tap water, yet this is also something which most operators currently do voluntarily.  It also mandates that venues must provide the smallest measures (for wine 125 ml glasses for instance) even though realistically they may not be used by customers a great deal.  With age verification policies too – most operators wishing to stay in business will already have a policy in place.  We only need to see how small the failure numbers were from test purchasing during the underage sales campaigns over recent years to see that this is a pretty pointless measure to pad out an irrelevant exercise.

It is true that the code will outlaw “all inclusive” deals, something which, many in the trade will welcome with open arms.  However the removal of the option to do certain promotions may actually just drive more trade into the arms of the off-trade, without creating a more sensible drinking culture. 

Many on-trade retailers have seen the rise and rise over preloading over recent years and know that their customers are choosing to have most of their alcohol at home before they venture out.  They are doing this because off-trade alcohol is radically cheaper.  To not really tackle this issue – even to outlaw the selling of alcohol below tax and VAT threshold (i.e loss-leading) makes the code yet another missed opportunity.

We can be thankful of one element which didn’t make it into the final version of the code: the “local” conditions (thanks to some concerted lobbying from Noctis and others).  This measure would have lead the way towards the blanket imposition of conditions on a location regardless of whether you’re a good, bad or indifferent operator.  For student venues which pride themselves of good standards of operation, this has to be a good thing.