by John Harrington
The Local Government Asso-ciation (LGA) has called for clarification on the powers that councils have to impose minimum pricing, after last week's report from the Home Affairs Select Committee urged councils to set prices.
The report called for minimum pricing and controls on drinks promotions, but confusion still surrounds the issue of whether local authorities have the power to set prices.
LGA deputy chairman Chris Clarke said: "We welcome the committee's endorsement of local authorities' powers to impose minimum pricing for alcohol and target irresponsible promotions.
"However, there needs to be a clarification of what these powers are as they are currently unclear and untested. In practice it may be difficult for councils to impose such conditions and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has already sounded a note of caution on the issue."
He called for clearer communication between Government departments and councils over the issue of price controls, to ensure "consistent interpretation of the rules".
The British Beer & Pub Association maintains that minimum pricing, even if it is imposed by local authorities, is price fixing and, therefore, is in breach of competition law.
But the Bar, Entertainment and Dance Association (BEDA) interprets the OFT's stance to be that local authorities would have the right to set minimum prices.
BEDA chief executive Jon Collins said he believed that councils could do this so long as they could prove that minimum pricing was a "necessary and proportionate" step to cut disorder.
"Unfortunately the language used [by the OFT] is ambiguous enough for it to be open for a counter argument to be put forward," Collins said.
"The OFT seems determined to stop short of saying this is how you can introduce minimum pricing'. They would much rather give themselves flexibility to consider cases in the future and not be hamstrung themselves."