Alcohol strategy 2012
The strategy sets out proposals to crack down on the 'binge drinking' culture in our country; cut the alcohol-fuelled violence and disorder that blights too many of our communities; and slash the number of people drinking to damaging levels.
The alcohol strategy includes commitments to:
- introduce a minimum unit price for alcohol
- consult on a ban on the sale of multi-buy alcohol discounting
- introduce stronger powers for local areas to control the density of licensed premises including making the impact on health a consideration for this
- pilot innovative sobriety schemes to challenge alcohol-related offending
We will be taking forward a number of consultations on these measures; these will be announced on our consultations page in due course. For more information on minimum unit pricing, please visit our alcohol pricing page.
In addition, the coalition government's programme on alcohol includes commitments to:
- overhaul the Licensing Act to give local authorities and the police much stronger powers to remove licences from, or refuse to grant licences to premises that are causing problems
- allow councils and the police to permanently shut down any shop or bar that is repeatedly selling alcohol to children
- double the maximum fine for those caught selling alcohol to minors to £20,000
These measures will come into force on 25th April 2012. Later this year we will introduce powers to:
- allow local councils to charge more for late-night licences, which will help pay for additional policing
- give local areas the power to stop alcohol sales late at night if they are causing problems by restricting operating and closing hours
