Local authorities can now ban happy hours in problem pubs

Local authorities are to be given the power to ban happy hours, all you can drink offers and other price promotions in troublesome pubs and bars.

The move, which will be implemented as part of a policing and crime bill in next week's Queen's Speech, follows a Government commissioned report in the summer which said the industry's voluntary code of practice had failed.

Gerry Sutcliffe, the Licensing Minister, told the Commons Culture Select Committee: "We want this to be proportionate and related to the actual harm it causes. If it is a promotion causing people to get drunk and causing problems then it is right that we should act."

Under the new code, local government trading standards officers and the police will have the power to place conditions on the issuing of licences and to remove licences where premises breach the code.

Promotions such as happy hours and free drinks until a certain time, or for particular customers, will be banned. Pubs and clubs will display unit levels around the till and offer large and small glasses for wine.

Whitehall has recommended that the code be mandatory but a final decision has yet to be taken by the Prime Minister, according to The Times.

In a move that will anger the hospitality industry, the announcement will not deal with supermarkets that sell beer and wine as loss leaders.

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By Daniel Thomas

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