Government to 'tear up' Licensing Act
The Government is to "tear up" the Licensing Act and will forge ahead with controversial plans for a late night levy and a ban on the below cost sale of alcohol in supermarkets.
At the Conservative Conference in Birmingham, Home Secretary Theresa May said the Government must "deal with the one thing that is behind more anti-social behaviour, criminality and violence than anything else - and that is alcohol".
She added: "We will tear up Labour's disastrous Licensing Act. I was the Shadow Culture Secretary when they introduced 24-hour licensing, and I fought them every step of the way.
"It gives me no pleasure to be proved right about the consequences - but it gives me great satisfaction to have the chance to undo it."
She said the consultation on changes to the Licensing Act was now complete and the Government would:
• Give local people more control over pubs, clubs and other licensed venues
• Allow councils to charge more for late-night licences, so they can spend more on late-night policing
• Double the fine for under-age sales and shut down shops and bars that persistently sell alcohol to children
• Ban the below-cost sale of alcohol
"We will also need to bring some sanity to the alphabet soup of police powers Labour invented. Week after week, they announced initiative after initiative to deal with anti-social behaviour," said May.
"The result was lots of headlines, but a sanctions regime so cluttered and complicated that it doesn't just confuse the perpetrators and victims, but police officers themselves."
