Beer boss backlash as new booze law hits buffers

Thursday 22 November 2018

The head of one of the island’s largest pub chains is calling on politicians to wake up and smell the rosé when it comes to changing an “outdated” alcohol law that sees children able to eat meals in some pubs at 20:00, but forced to leave one hour later.

The calls from Gavin Reid, Chief Executive of Randalls, came after it emerged this week that plans to make the 1974 Licensing Law fit for the modern day had been shelved indefinitely.

After nearly a decade of discussion, Senator Steve Pallett brought forward a reformed version of the rules governing alcohol sales in the island in March, but withdrew these on the day they were due to be voted on by States Members amid concerns that his plans hadn’t undergone enough scrutiny. 

While initially optimistic about re-submitting the proposals for debate without too much delay, on Tuesday he told his colleagues that he no longer had the staff and resources to do so, leaving the future of the 44-year-old law up in the air.

Mr Reid has since described the news as “very disappointing”, given that the industry had been “led to believe” the matter would be resolved “shortly.”

Pictured: Senator Pallett originally brought proposals for an updated Licensing Law in March.

“The discussion and process for drafting the new law goes back many many years now and has been passed from varying States Departments who all seem to have a differing agenda which just delays the process further... We seem to go two steps forward then one step back.”

He told Express that keeping the “clearly outdated” law as it is, was putting pressure on pub managers, who are trying their best to “operate their businesses under a law, which has no provision for how lifestyles have changed in the last 44 years."

Giving an example of how the law is currently restricting business, Mr Reid explained that a family with children under the age of 18 are able to enter one of Randalls outlets with a ‘category 1’ licence at 20:00 for an evening meal, only to find out that their children need to be off the premises by 21:00.

"What kind of message does this send out to our tourists who are unfamiliar with the local law?," Mr Reid questioned. 

His sentiments were echoed by Simon Soar, the new CEO of the Jersey Hospitality Association(JHA), who said he is still keen to see the issue back on the political agenda.

Pictured: Simon Soar, CEO of the Jersey Hospitality Association.

"We can't keep ahead with a law that is 40 years old, that has not been updated and which is not fit for purpose," he commented. 

"The current demands cannot be fulfilled with the criteria from the 1974 law. A new law needs to be brought in so that we can keep moving with the times, in a way that works for the law enforcement, the trade and the public." 

However, Mr Soar explained that the JHA would not have supported the draft law as it was presented in March, due to various adaptations other politicians had tried to make to it. "The final amendments meant that it was barely making a change, it wasn't good enough for us.” 

Nonetheless, he said the JHA would have supported the introduction of a new Licensing Authority – the body that makes judgments over premises serving alcohol, which is currently comprised of the Bailiff and Jurats. 

"We said very clearly that we could not have decisions on licensing sitting with the highest powers. We needed something different where we would have been able to appeal with the highest powers if needed. The current system doesn't allow appeals, if you want to appeal you need to bring someone from the UK. This is not correct. The law needs to be modernised and it needs to be future-proof." 

Pictured: Senator Steve Pallett, the Assistant Minister tasked with updating the 1974 Licensing Law.

Senator Pallett said that it had given him “no pleasure” to report that no progress had been made since he withdrew his suggested update to the law.

Speaking to Express following his announcement, the Senator raised retrospective concerns over the decision to pull the draft legislation before it could be debated. 

He said the final say was with the Shadow Alcohol Licensing Policy Group, which included former Senators Andrew Green and Paul Routier. Although himself a member, Senator Pallett, who was then a Constable, said he would have preferred to go ahead with a debate – however “messy” it may have been.

“It probably would have been best to plough in with the debate. Maybe we should have had a little bit more guile. It would have been messy but it would have given us some good information on what the States' appetite was for licensing. Even if we had lost and would have had to start again, it would have given us an indication. We missed that opportunity and now we are left to guess." 

He added that the decision was also influenced by the fact that a panel of politicians tasked with reviewing his plans had not fully reviewed it – despite having around 18 months to do so in the lead-up to the draft law being put to a vote.

Pictured: Industry bosses face an indefinite wait until the law is looked at again.

The Senator explained that the Scrutiny Panel "led us to believe" that there was no issue around overturning the licensing authority system by replacing the Bailiff and Jurats with seven States Members.

"We thought we had the support from the industry on that," Senator Pallett said. However, shortly before the debate, the Scrutiny Panel apparently gave a different opinion. "We had a meeting between the Scrutiny Panel, the Hospitality Association, myself and my officers, and we realised there was no consensus between what the Scrutiny Panel said and what the industry wanted.

"We thought they [the Scrutiny Panel] had evidence that the industry wanted to go back to the old Licensing Assembly. But there was a clear difference between what they told us and what the industry said."

Senator Pallett said that he could republish the law he had worked on and get it through the States very quickly, but that he doesn't want to do so until he has had the chance to do more consultation on it. However, he reaffirmed that he can't do that until the government decides whether sorting the law change is one of their strategic priorities. 

As a result, industry bosses  – and islanders - face an indefinite wait until the decades-old law is addressed.