A Message to The Government
I read an interesting letter
in the OLN yesterday. One that raised a few points that I believe show
the way that the Licensed industry is currently feeling. I will
reciprocate those points here and introduce a few of my own.
As most people should know a new licensing act is in effect, the Licensing Act 2003. This act gives the police more powers to help tackle the problem of underage drinkers. Unfortunately it is not being used to its full potential. The act gives the police (or Trading standards, or Licensing Authorities) the power to issue an eighty pound fine to anyone caught selling alcohol to minors. This fine is on the spot and can also be issued to any adult caught proxy buying for minors. The law also makes it possible for the minors themselves to be fined/prosecuted for attempting to purchase alcohol.
As well as fines most people can be taken to court for falling foul of the Licensing act, depending on the crime Personal License holders can receive some fairly large fines.
Before I go any further allow me to explain what I mean by a Personal License holder. As many are aware in order to sell or supply alcohol the premises from which it is to be sold/supplied requires a Premises license. This has not changed, though a few alterations to the requirements have been made (Licensing authorities can no longer decline to give you a premises license on the basis of their being to many licensed premises in the area). The law also requires the sale of alcohol to be 'authorised' by a personal license holder. Each premises must have a 'Designated Premises Supervisor' or DPS, this person must hold a personal license. The DPS does not necessarily have to be present all the time, however when s/he is not available s/he must have left written authorisation for his staff to sell alcohol.
As you can now appreciate, getting a business up and running can now be very expensive, it is wise to have at least two personal license holders within the business in case one should leave.
My issue with the current Licensing Act is simply that it is not being used as it was intended. Much like the old system test purchases are carried out. Any member of staff caught selling to a minor will receive an on the spot fine and will also have an interview with Trading Standards. Though I have never been in one of these, I am told that they treat you as a criminal and not as someone who has made a mistake.
Whilst Test Purchasing is supposed to be a good idea, we are far past the point where Trading Standards are simply testing us, we as an industry are now in the position of having people try to catch us out. Trading Standards have been known to use children who are 17yrs and 364 days old for their test purchases.
This in itself is grossly unfair, but to make matters worse the industry appears to be carrying the blame for underage drinkers. We do not wake up in the morning and think 'Ill serve some minors today' the minors wake up and try and buy alcohol from us.
Why are we not seeing Trading Standards officers posing as Sales Assistants and fining and dragging through the courts any minor that attempts to get served?? Why are we not seeing Trading Standards using groups of minors to catch adults that will proxy buy? Why is the problem not being taken care of properly?
The simple reason (I believe) is that given the number of Licensed premises in the UK, if Trading Standards employ certain tricks the likelihood that they will catch a few businesses out is far higher than the likelihood of catching anyone using the methods just suggested. Trading Standards staff do after all have to justify their jobs.
I think it is such a shame that a Government Agency feels the need to vilify an industry, as an industry we are trying to tackle this problem, but we cannot do it if the Government won't lead the way. We are not able to slap fines onto the minors who try to put our jobs in jeopardy every day, but YOU ARE!! The Government needs to work with the Industry on this matter, not against us.
The current victimisation of the Industry is not only unfair, but it is causing the loss of peoples livelihoods. It is unfortunate that some minors are still getting served, but in the society we currently have 13yr old girls can look 20.
With the help of schemes such as Think 21 the industry is attempting to tackle this problem, but the very agency that is supposed to be helping us overcome this issue is in fact targeting us.
Things have to change.
For my take on the Governments Anti-Smoking efforts see here
As most people should know a new licensing act is in effect, the Licensing Act 2003. This act gives the police more powers to help tackle the problem of underage drinkers. Unfortunately it is not being used to its full potential. The act gives the police (or Trading standards, or Licensing Authorities) the power to issue an eighty pound fine to anyone caught selling alcohol to minors. This fine is on the spot and can also be issued to any adult caught proxy buying for minors. The law also makes it possible for the minors themselves to be fined/prosecuted for attempting to purchase alcohol.
As well as fines most people can be taken to court for falling foul of the Licensing act, depending on the crime Personal License holders can receive some fairly large fines.
Before I go any further allow me to explain what I mean by a Personal License holder. As many are aware in order to sell or supply alcohol the premises from which it is to be sold/supplied requires a Premises license. This has not changed, though a few alterations to the requirements have been made (Licensing authorities can no longer decline to give you a premises license on the basis of their being to many licensed premises in the area). The law also requires the sale of alcohol to be 'authorised' by a personal license holder. Each premises must have a 'Designated Premises Supervisor' or DPS, this person must hold a personal license. The DPS does not necessarily have to be present all the time, however when s/he is not available s/he must have left written authorisation for his staff to sell alcohol.
As you can now appreciate, getting a business up and running can now be very expensive, it is wise to have at least two personal license holders within the business in case one should leave.
My issue with the current Licensing Act is simply that it is not being used as it was intended. Much like the old system test purchases are carried out. Any member of staff caught selling to a minor will receive an on the spot fine and will also have an interview with Trading Standards. Though I have never been in one of these, I am told that they treat you as a criminal and not as someone who has made a mistake.
Whilst Test Purchasing is supposed to be a good idea, we are far past the point where Trading Standards are simply testing us, we as an industry are now in the position of having people try to catch us out. Trading Standards have been known to use children who are 17yrs and 364 days old for their test purchases.
This in itself is grossly unfair, but to make matters worse the industry appears to be carrying the blame for underage drinkers. We do not wake up in the morning and think 'Ill serve some minors today' the minors wake up and try and buy alcohol from us.
Why are we not seeing Trading Standards officers posing as Sales Assistants and fining and dragging through the courts any minor that attempts to get served?? Why are we not seeing Trading Standards using groups of minors to catch adults that will proxy buy? Why is the problem not being taken care of properly?
The simple reason (I believe) is that given the number of Licensed premises in the UK, if Trading Standards employ certain tricks the likelihood that they will catch a few businesses out is far higher than the likelihood of catching anyone using the methods just suggested. Trading Standards staff do after all have to justify their jobs.
I think it is such a shame that a Government Agency feels the need to vilify an industry, as an industry we are trying to tackle this problem, but we cannot do it if the Government won't lead the way. We are not able to slap fines onto the minors who try to put our jobs in jeopardy every day, but YOU ARE!! The Government needs to work with the Industry on this matter, not against us.
The current victimisation of the Industry is not only unfair, but it is causing the loss of peoples livelihoods. It is unfortunate that some minors are still getting served, but in the society we currently have 13yr old girls can look 20.
With the help of schemes such as Think 21 the industry is attempting to tackle this problem, but the very agency that is supposed to be helping us overcome this issue is in fact targeting us.
Things have to change.
For my take on the Governments Anti-Smoking efforts see here
