MPs call for happy hour ban

Published: 10 November, 2008

MPs are calling for an end to happy hour promotions and cheap alcohol being sold in supermarkets.

MPs are calling for an end to happy hour promotions and cheap alcohol being sold in supermarkets.

A damning report released today by the Home Affairs Select Committee says that police resources are being stretched to "the absolute limit" by binge-drinkers and drunk football fans.

The report says that alcohol related crime costs the country £7.3 billion a year, and quotes NHS research showing that alcohol was 65% more affordable in 2006 than it was in 1980.

MPs say that one possible solution would be to impose legislation that would set a minimum price on alcohol. That idea is one of several that the government is considering as part of a mandatory code of practice for the drinks industry, in its bid to curb Britain's binge-drink culture.

The call comes in a report on challenges facing police forces in the 21st century.

Keith Vaz, chairman of the committee, said retailers must end a "pile it high, sell it cheap" culture.

"We cannot have, on one hand, a world of alcohol promotions for profit that fuels surges of crime and disorder and, on the other, the police diverting all their resources to cope with it," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Meanwhile the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) has hit back at the report's findings.

Jeremy Beadles, chief executive of the WSTA, said: "Calls for Government to set the price of alcohol or raise prices for everyone are simply unfair, particularly in the current economic climate, and will do nothing to stop the small minority who misuse alcohol.

"Rather than using the blunt instrument of tax or price, the Government ought to build on the examples of good partnership between the industry, police and local government to reduce alcohol harm."