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Pub owners warned to call time on inebriation

Businesses in the North East pub trade are being warned to watch out for swingeing sanctions if they serve intoxicated people in the future.

Richard Arnot, head of licensing and gaming law and partner at Watson Burton is keen to highlight the new focus by police on pub owner prosecutions for serving drunken customers.

This follows the publication of a report on alcohol by the House of Commons Health Committee which calls for much tighter regulation and control of alcohol by pubs, off-licences and supermarkets.

Pubs can expect undercover police campaigns and prosecutions as a consequence.

Richard Arnot said: “It’s been a tough couple of years for many pub owners, with the smoking ban and the effects of recession already taking their toll on turnover. This latest House of Commons report will make some feel they are under siege.

“The best advice, however, is to encourage communication with police so that intelligence can be shared among bars and nightclubs. If pub owners do not already train bar staff in how to refuse sales to obviously drunk customers they should do so now. It’s a tricky area – not only to spot intoxication but to know how to deal with such customers effectively.

“All bar staff should be aware of the need to enforce licensing laws if they recognise drunkenness, and good relations with police will help to underline the importance of well managed premises.”

View from the benches

Tony Brookes, managing director of The Head of Steam chain of pubs, agreed that pubs were increasingly feeling ‘under siege’.

He said: “We in the independent pub trade are getting fairly sick of the media and the police and the government focusing on kicking the pubs as being the culprit, when the pubs are licensed operations having their livelihood threatened through actions that are nothing to do with them.

“Serving people who are drunk is actually quite a complex thing to avoid. Licensees know that they have a legal obligation to refuse service to those people.

“We’ve trained our staff to spot drunk people, to get them out of the building or to refuse them service.

“Our staff have all had letters which warn them that if they’re found serving anybody underage, or somebody who’s clearly drunk, it’s a dismissible offence - it’s gross misconduct.

“What more does the establishment want use to do? How much more closely can we work with the police? Is the answer that everybody who comes to the bar to buy a round has to take a breath test?”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .