Alcohol Alert – October 2020

Hello and welcome to the Alcohol Alert, brought to you by The Institute of Alcohol Studies.

In this edition:

* COVID-19: Latest lockdown measures leave pubs in tiers

* IAS second briefing on COVID-19 alcohol consumption warns of the hidden harm from the rise in increasing and higher risk drinking 🎵 Podcast feature 🎵

* ScotRail considers a blanket ban on alcohol on Scottish trains

* Government in call for evidence for review of alcohol duty

* Research finds that NoLo beers have a small impact on alcohol purchases

* Scottish and Irish governments face challenges over minimum unit pricing legislation

* Sobriety tag scheme reaches Wales

* Heineken fined £2m for breaching Pubs Code

We hope you enjoy our roundup of stories below: please feel free to share. Thank you.

COVID-19: Latest lockdown measures leave pubs in tiers

As the UK began to experience an upturn in coronavirus case numbers, so policymakers in the devolved administrations started looking at tackling the sources of the dreaded second wave of COVID-19, and pubs have come under close scrutiny in all quarters.

Scotland

Scotland decided to close pubs across its central belt for a 16-day period, and limit the opening hours of other licensed premises, as part of a ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown (Scottish Government, 07 Oct).* Quoting her chief medical officer’s evidence, first minister Nicola Sturgeon drew a correlation between the ‘more than one fifth of people contacted by Test and Protect’ who reported visiting a hospitality setting, and the increase in the R rate above 1 ‘approximately three weeks after the hospitality sector opened up’:

* subsequently extended to 02 November (STV News, 21 Oct)

Wales

In Wales, where a 10PM curfew on selling alcohol for licensed premises was introduced last month, first minister Mark Drakeford proceeded to issue a ‘firebreak’ lockdown of his own – turning pubs into takeaway taverns only between 23 October and 09 November (Welsh Government, 19 Oct).

England

The same curfew applies to England. However, lawmakers decided to adopt the novel approach of localising management of the lockdown with a tier system, which has resulted in curious outcomes such as a legal definition of what a ‘substantial’ meal is, for the purpose of allowing some licensed premises to continue to operate under the most severe tier restrictions (The Mirror, 12 Oct).

For some venue owners, the new rules also mean that in addition to pressure from law enforcement to check IDs for names and addresses in a bid to stop households mixing (EuroWeekly, 21 Oct), those situated in ‘high’ and ‘very high’ tier areas are either subject to the inevitability of fewer customers paying a visit, or temporary closure for wet-led pubs. One Financial Times article predicts the end of chains whose main custom is serving alcohol (13 Oct):

On the face of it, the most affected of the UK’s listed national inn groups are Marston’s, JD Wetherspoon and M&B. It looks like last orders.Large proportions of Marston’s and JD Wetherspoon’s hostelries are wet-led. Food as a percentage of JDW’s total sales rank among the lowest in the sector. More than two-thirds of Marston’s pubs are old-fashioned boozers.All three groups are loaded with debt, which even last year was many times ebitda. Earnings of all three are expected to at least halve this year. Marston’s stood at about £1·4bn at the last count or £1·2bn including the cash coming in from the brewing joint venture with Carlsberg opportunely signed this summer. That could be more than 10 times this year’s ebitda. Pub earnings of many groups will barely cover interest bills this year.

The resulting uncertainty has only served to anger licensees and those sympathetic to the plight of the industry. Some have pulled stunts, such as a retaliatory ban (Telegraph, 30 Sep); others have sought further evidence for the 10PM curfew’s effectiveness and whether it represents a threat to the health of people thrown out of pubs and restaurants at the same time (London Evening Standard, 06 Oct); but The Night Time Industries Association has launched legal action to try to prevent the new lockdown measures entirely (Daily Mail, 12 Oct).

Whatever the outcome, the reality of the current measures will most likely be a further loss of jobs in the hospitality sector, like Greene King (Sky News, 07 Oct), and a permanent shutdown of licensed premises – as many as one in five, according to real estate adviser Altus Group (Morning Advertiser, 08 Oct).

Northern Ireland

Having already set a curfew time for licensed premises of 11PM as opposed to 10PM in other areas of the UK, the Stormont executive decided to do lockdown a little differently from the other Home Nations too. Their first minister, Arlene Foster, announced a four-week shutdown of the hospitality sector apart from deliveries and takeaways for food only during trading hours. Uniquely, Northern Ireland is the only nation to address the availability of alcohol in the off-trade too: off-licences and supermarkets will not be permitted to sell alcohol after 8pm (Northern Ireland Executive Office, 14 Oct) during the period.

Too much focus on pubs?

In the row between government and the hospitality sector over the COVID-19 restrictions, the deputy chief medical officer for England was reported to have said that he ‘could not guarantee’ the 10PM curfew would ‘bring the virus under control’ (The Telegraph, 18 Oct, £wall), instead preferring a mandatory closing time of 6PM.

But while much has been made of the impact of the latest round of restrictions on licensed premises, supermarkets have benefited from the increase in alcohol purchases in the four weeks to 04 October: Kantar data reported Britons spent an extra £261m on alcohol in grocery stores (Guardian, 13 Oct).

Data from Public Health England Wider Impacts of COVID-19 on Health (WICH) monitoring tool indicates the influence of pandemic-induced home drinking on the intake of increasing and higher risk drinkers.

COVID-19 briefing warns of rising health risks to heavy drinkers

🎵 Podcast feature 🎵

The second Institute of Alcohol Studies briefing on alcohol consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic (08 Oct) warns of the hidden harm from the rise in increasing and higher risk drinking and highlights the need for the UK Government to find public health solutions to the issue.

Speaking on the podcast, Dr Sadie Boniface, IAS head of research, who authored the briefing, hinted at the impact that increased consumption among the heaviest drinkers may have on treatment providers for substance problems:

In terms of treatment for substance use problems including alcohol, there’s been a bit of a fall compared with the same time period last year, but I have read some other statistics as well that say it’s starting to pick up now, so what’s really concerning is that problems to do with increased drinking during the pandemic might be being stored up for the future.

Alcohol ban on Scottish trains under consideration

According to The Scotsman, national train operator ScotRail have informed the Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) Union of the possibility of bringing in ‘a full all-hours drinking ban on trains in a bid to tighten up on COVID-19 safety measures’ (17 Oct).

It comes after the nation’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon said more stringent travel rules ‘need to be considered’.

However, the move is rumoured to have been put on hold after the British Transport Police (BTP) called for more time to consider the resource implications, and the RMT have expressed some concerns about enforcement of the new rules.

Mick Hogg, regional organiser for the RMT in Scotland, said: ‘We have been told by ScotRail that there will be a full ban on alcohol on trains as a COVID-19 measure. We welcome that.‘But it has to be resourced or it puts more pres