Pub trade slams Home Office report on on-trade

21 July 2008 by
Pub trade slams Home Office report on on-trade

The British Beer & Pub Association has dismissed a Home Office-backed study by KPMG into drinks industry standards as ignoring existing evidence.

The KPMG report, Review of the Social Responsibility Standards for the Production and Sale of Alcoholic Drinks, will be published tomorrow.

Media reports today suggest it will accuse the on-trade of "irresponsible and harmful practices". The BBC has said the Home Office will likely look to introduce further legislation as a result.

The report is believed to be critical of the pub industry's efforts to self regulate through a voluntary code of conduct.

Rob Hayward, chief executive of the BBPA, said: "We have not yet seen the report, but from extracts we have seen, it seems long on anecdotal stories and short on hard empirical evidence.

"It totally ignores existing hard evidence from the repeated government sting operations which have visited thousands of pubs in recent years. Those reports, while identifying some problems, have tracked consistent improvement in standards and high levels of good practice."

Hayward said that the report criticised the pub industry for not doing something that was against the law, as it was illegal for trade associations to enforce agreements on promotions across the sector.

A separate study into drinks promotions by Alcohol Concern, published today, said that "self-regulation" had failed in the on-trade.

Under pressure pub industry needs support in 2008 >>

Drinks industry hits back at regulation plans >>

By Christopher Walton

E-mail your comments to Christopher Walton here.

The Caterer Blog](http://www.caterersearch.com/blogs/catering-news-blog/) Catch up with more news and gossip on the Caterer Blog here
[Newsletters For the latest hospitality news, sign up for our e-mail newsletters.
The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking