Opposition mounts against proposals to end the bar on Sunday
off-licence sales in Scotland
HAVE you ever wondered why you can buy a bottle of wine on a Sunday in
a pub but not in an off-licence or a supermarket or your local corner
shop? The answer is a quirk in Scottish licensing laws, a quirk which
the Government is proposing to remove. But they won't do it without a
fight.
To a Government committed to slashing through red tape and doing away
with anything smacking of the ''nanny state'', the bar on Sunday drinks
sales in Scotland is an anachronistic anomaly. Changes to the Sunday
trading laws south of the Border mean off-licences there can now open
seven days a week.
Government Ministers propose to use the forthcoming Deregulation Bill
to bring the two countries into line on the issue. Consumer Affairs
Minister Neil Hamilton said this week that the rights of the 99% of
people who use alcohol responsibly should not be restricted because of
the 1% who do not. Previous liberalising legislation has had a neutral
impact on the problem of alcoholism, he said. Naturally, the change has
strong backing from brewers, distillers, and the licensed trade.
But those who believed it would slip through on the nod, tagged on to
legislation dealing mainly with England and Wales, allowed without the
determination of the Labour group on the committee, headed by
tee-totaller George Galloway. After losing the vote on the clause at the
committee stage by 15 votes to 12, the objectors will be trying to get a
bandwagon rolling on the issue before the free vote on it in the Commons
in May.
Galloway contests the Government's premise. ''The more alcohol
consumed, the more problems associated with alcohol there will be,'' he
said. The Government's figures show a 13% increase in alcohol
consumption in Scotland since the 1976 Licensing Scotland Act, which
substantially liberalised pub opening hours.
He claims the change is being pushed through by English Tories
unfamiliar with problems associated with crowds of drunken young thugs,
gathering outside off-licences in Scottish housing schemes. Labour want
the Government to act on proposals to ban drinking in public places
before any consideration of further relaxation in the licensing laws.
Their position has the strong backing of the Church of Scotland. The
Kirk's Board of Social Responsibility has written to every MP on the
committee to argue the case for retaining the Sunday restrictions on
alcohol sales. Board convener, the Rev. Bill Wallace, says they are
disappointed that the Government has come back to this issue so quickly.
The Kirk's position is that any further liberalisation will have a
detrimental effect on Church life, family life, and Scottish Christian
Heritage. They say Sunday trading in Scotland has already made a
significant impact on social and family life.
These views are strongly contested by the licensed trade though not
all sectors of the trade necessarily stand to gain. Most enthusiastic
are small corner shops, represented by the Scottish Grocers' Federation.
Many if not most are open on Sundays anyway and resent the present ban.
Supermarkets also favour liberalisation not only because of the
opportunity to increase sales but also because of the inconvenience of
having to block off drinks sections in their stores one day a week. The
off-licence chains have least to gain, and it is unlikely that stores in
small shopping precincts and other locations off main roads would bother
to open at all.
Back in 1950 there was such strong opposition to Sunday trading in
Scotland that it was considered unnecessary to include the country in
most of the provisions of the Shops Act. Prior to 1973, local councils
had discretionary powers over Sunday trading. Since then Sunday trading
in Scotland has become so popular that by 1988 one shop in two was
opening for at least one Sunday a year.
In 1976 following from the recommendations of the Clayson Committee,
Scotland's licensing laws were considerably liberalised and pubs and
clubs permitted to open on Sundays. But the ban on Sunday off-licence
sales was retained, except where on the same premises as a pub.
According to Patrick Duffy, editor of the Scottish Licensed Trade
News, matters came to a head when the row over Sunday trading in England
came to the boil: ''A strange situation developed when supermarkets
started testing the law in England by opening on a Sunday. You had
supermarkets in England, which weren't meant to be open, selling alcohol
and supermarkets in Scotland, which were allowed to be open, not allowed
to sell alcohol.''
Duffy says surveys show widespread public support for lifting the
sales ban.
Douglas Allsop, executive director of the Scottish Council on
Alcoholism, said there was no clear-cut case either for or against the
change: ''Logically, there is no reason why off-licences shouldn't be
open on Sunday. However, all the evidence points to the fact that the
majority of very young drinkers get their alcohol from off-licences. If
this change goes through, I think there needs to be much more
regulation. Otherwise it will cause more problems with under-age
drinking.''
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