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Posts Tagged ‘wine’

Airports and Alcohol

With the half term school holiday nearly at an end now, many of you will be returning from having hopped on a plane to enjoy some sun.  Did  you know that any airside venue at an international airport, selling an alcoholic drink to a person, who is already drunk, cannot be prosecuted (even for this most obvious breach of the licensing laws)?

This is because such venues enjoy immunity from the Licensing Act. Sussex Police recently carried out a “test purchasing” spree at Gatwick Airport and uncovered some sales to underage drinkers. Sadly for them, due to the fact that any bar, restaurant or pub selling alcohol on the airside of International Airports in England and Wales do not need a premises licence, they were unable to prosecute. Now Sussex Police are lobbying for change.

Sobering Thoughts…Should There be Minimum Pricing on Alcohol?

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Is this the end of the Happy Hour, as we know it?

According to a Report published by a cross-party Health Committee, on 8 January 2010, the U.K. Government should introduce minimum prices on alcoholic drinks, independent and tighter regulation of promotions, a rise in taxes on spirits, and mandatory health warnings on labels.

The Home Affairs Select Committee wants to end cheap drinks promotions thought to encourage binge-drinking.

It criticises Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s administration for being too sympathetic to supermarkets and drink producers and not paying enough attention to doctors. The report says that the Government is guilty of a “failure of will and competence” over alcohol policy.