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.''