Government rules out minimum pricing for alcohol

The Government yesterday ruled out minimum pricing for alcohol but confirmed that it will ban promotions that encourage people to drink excessively.

The new laws, part of the forthcoming mandatory code on the sale and promotion of alcohol, will also force licensed premises to offer free tap water and 125ml glasses for wine, according to police minister Vernon Coaker.

Ahead of the publication of a consultation on the code, expected in the next two weeks, Coaker said: "It cannot be right to see ‘women drink free all night' promotions."

He told MPs on the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee that the Government had ruled out imposing a minimum price per unit of alcohol, but would instead challenge some of the ways in which alcohol was drunk and how it was sold.

The code will, for example, on the practice of alcohol from being dispensed directly into the customer's mouth.

Coaker said the code was also needed to address below-cost price alcohol being sold in some supermarkets, particularly near council estates.

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By Daniel Thomas

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