BBPA: Licensing Act works well
Five years ago today the Licensing Act 2003 came into force, allowing pubs to stay open longer.
Deemed in certain quarters of the media as the legislation responsible for creating 'Binge Drinking Britain', the actual number of pubs opening significantly longer is small, compared with the tens of thousands of sites up and down the country.
And there are only a handful of pubs actually trading 24 hours a day - compared with those which are licensed to do so.
However mixed the reaction among licensees to the Act, Theresa May, the coalition government's Home Secretary, has vowed to clampdown on what she believes are the less socially responsible impacts of the legislation, which was brought in by the last Labour administration.
Among a number of proposed changes May wants to hand more power to local residents in matters of licensing and to allow councils to charge more for late-night licences.
Commenting on fifth anniversary of Act, Brigid Simmonds, chief executive, British Beer & Pub Association, said the Act had worked well "overall".
"The '24-hour pub' has been shown to be a myth - as we always said it would be. A pub is open, on average, just 27 minutes later than prior to the Act's introduction.
"When it comes to reform of the Act, we share the Government's objective of tackling binge drinking and anti-social behaviour, but there is a huge array of existing laws with which to do this.
"We need to do more to promote and protect our pubs, which are, after all, at the heart of our hospitality and tourism industry and the home of responsible and supervised drinking."
What do you think has been the impact of the 2003 Act? Let us know your thoughts. Email: news@thepublican.com
