Scottish Government plans supermarket booze crackdown

12 February 2008 by
Scottish Government plans supermarket booze crackdown

The Scottish Government is planning to tax supermarket and off-license sales of alcohol as part of a ‘polluter pays' approach to battling binge-drinking.

Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said yesterday that with more alcohol being sold through the off-trade the problems of binge-drinking were not restricted to the on-trade in city centres.

As a result supermarkets should be treated with the same punitive measures as pubs and bars.

According to reports in the Scotsman](http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/SNP-threatens-to-tax-supermarkets.3766548.jp), local licensing boards in Scotland will be given free reign to spend the fees raised by the proposed alcohol tax on projects that encourage socially responsible drinking.

A recent survey by the Home Office showed that 52% of under-age drinkers obtained their alcohol directly from the off-trade with a further 22% getting it from older family and friends.

The on-trade throughout the UK has persistently fought suggestions that supermarket pricing policies are undermining their efforts to retail alcohol responsibly and promote sensible drinking.

Scottish licensees looking for price parity on alcohol sales with supermarkets, who often sell booze as a loss leader, currently face rising license costs as part of a wider overhaul of licensing north of the border.

Earlier this month Scottish Beer and Pub Association chief executive Patrick Browne warned that the rising cost of licenses could see smaller pubs in Scotland considering their future as viable businesses.

Scottish licensing laws overhaul to begin today >>
Scotland's publicans face licence fee hike >>

Supermarkets to continue selling cheap alcohol >>
Supermarkets undermining pubs' responsible drinking efforts >>

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
[Newswire For the latest hospitality news, sign up for our e-mail news alerts.
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