Resources for new booze law run dry

Wednesday 21 November 2018

The future of a new law to replace the island’s 44-year-old approach to alcohol, and the places that sell it, is up in the air after the Assistant Minister responsible for it revealed that his resources have run dry.

Senator Steve Pallett told his fellow politicians during yesterday’s States Assembly meeting that no progress has been made on the new Licensing Law since he had to withdraw his draft in March, on the day it was meant to be debated in the Assembly.

Prior to the elections, the Senator, who was then a Constable, had been tasked with updating the 1974 law, which had previously been criticised as being complex, inflexible and unfair.

Among his proposals was the idea of overturning the licensing authority system so that applications would no longer be considered by the Bailiff and Jurats, but by a new Licensing Authority made up of seven States Members instead.

Video: Constable Steve Pallett told Express in March that he had no choice but to withdraw the new liquor licensing draft law from States debate.

However, the plans were pulled at the eleventh hour amid concerns that not enough work had been done to scrutinise the legislation.

While the Senator described the move as “hugely disappointing”, he said he was confident that the legislation, which aimed to minimising crime and disorder and the health risks associated with alcohol, while also boosting economic activity, could be ironed out following the elections.

Yesterday, however, he announced that no longer was the case due to major resource challenges.

The Assistant Minister said it gave him "no pleasure" to report no progress had been made since 6 March.

Pictured: Senator Steve Pallett, the Assistant Minister for Economic Development, Tourism, Sport and Culture.

He told States Assembly: "Industry representatives pressed the introduction of a single category of on licence and a new determining authority with a different membership to the one proposed in the draft law... At the same time we are being pressed by the Scrutiny Panel and other industry stakeholders to consider retaining the existing Licensing assembly, which has concerns about the practical consequences of introducing a single on licence category."

Senator Pallett also explained that he no longer had a dedicated policy and legislation team within his department but that one of his officers has been meeting stakeholders since May.

He said: "Stakeholders, including a lot of the pub chains, hotel groups, restaurants, hospitality businesses, all have different concerns over how the Law was drafted. Some concerns are around the complexity of the law and maybe that was an issue around communication from both the Scrutiny Panel and from the department myself.

"We need more consultation on it. I can’t really do that until I have policy officers able to carry that work forward."

Pictured: Senator Pallett said that he can't do more until the States decide what their priorities are, and hopes that licensing will be one of them.

Another hurdle related to concerns over whether the current government would treat sorting the law change as one of their strategic priorities.

St. Helier Constable, Simon Crowcroft pointed out that licensing had already been agreed as a priority by the previous States Assembly over three years ago.

"I was extremely disappointed that this could not be debated in March. If it had been purely on my thoughts, I would have gone ahead with the debate because I think if nothing else it would have flushed out the issues within this draft licensing law but we never got to that stage unfortunately. All I can do is apologise on behalf of the hospitality industry for not providing an up-to-date licensing law that they can understand and work with moving forward."