"Extending kicking-out time won’t reduce alcohol consumption"

Friday 20 May 2016

The Health Minister has kicked into touch the idea of extending kicking-out time.

Senator Andrew Green told a Scrutiny Panel hearing on Thursday that research conducted in the UK showed that making licensing hours more flexible – meaning, in theory, that people would be less inclined to ‘drink-up’ and more inclined to stop drinking earlier – didn’t work in practice.

Instead, Health want to limit price promotions and special offers on alcoholic drinks – a proposal that has been met with stiff criticism from the pub trade. They say that the average, responsible drinker will be unfairly penalised.

But Senator Green and his team still want a curb on promotions to form part of a new Liquor Licensing Law.

“It’s estimated that the problems caused by alcohol cost Jersey between £45m - £70m a year and we have one of the highest per capita consumption rates in the world,” he said. “All the evidence that I have seen links consumption to price and availability – so that is our focus. I know that ‘economic’ people will say that low prices are important but a vibrant economy based on the sale of alcohol is not what I want to see.”

The Minister is a member of a body called the Shadow Alcohol Licensing Group, which will shortly publish its recommendations of what should be in the new law. Ultimately, the draft law will be lodged by the Economic Development Minister, whose department has responsibility for licensing legislation.

Despite Jersey's booze culture, consumption is actually on the way down. In 2003, Islanders each drank an average of 16 litres of alcohol a year; by 2015, this had fallen to 12.1 litres.