Holyrood committee declines to back Alcohol Health Bill

A member's bill that aims to promote public health and reduce alcohol related offending has failed to win the backing of a Holyrood committee in its stage 1 report.

By a majority, the Health & Sport Committee has not been persuaded that the Alcohol (Licensing, Public Health and Criminal Justice) (Scotland) Bill, introduced by Labour MSP Dr Richard Simpson, is an effective and workable package of measures to tackle alcohol misuse.

Among other provisions the bill would place further restrictions on the retailing and advertising of alcoholic drinks, direct certain people whose offending or antisocial behaviour is attributable to alcohol consumption towards treatment or restrict their consumption, and place obligations on ministers to publish, review and report on their alcohol education policy.

Whilst the Committee recognises the aim of the bill, the majority of the committee believe that the Government’s forthcoming alcohol strategy offers a more effective route to address these issues. The minority believe that it would introduce a series of useful additional tools and approaches to support the current alcohol policy regime that would further tackle alcohol misuse in Scotland.

Convener Duncan McNeil MSP commented: “This bill contains a wide range of measures – from restrictions on advertising alcohol to introducing drink banning orders. Having looked at all these in detail, it was clear there were a wide variety of views expressed about the effectiveness of these proposals, which is reflected in the committee’s report.

“As a committee, the majority of our members, whilst supporting the aims of legislation, couldn’t support the detail of the proposals.”
Deputy Convener of the Committee Bob Doris MSP added: "We heard during evidence that some of the bill’s proposals may not require legislation, as voluntary schemes could achieve the same outcomes.

“We ask the Scottish Government to address the merits of all the proposals in the bill as part of their wider strategy on alcohol regardless of the progress of this bill.”

The report also concludes that the Scottish Government should give further consideration to the need to consolidate alcohol licensing legislation as part of its review of its alcohol strategy, in view of the challenges presented by the current volume of legislation and regulation governing alcohol licensing.

The full Parliament will decide on the further progress of the bill at the stage 1 debate.

Click here to view the committee's report.