THE attempt to introduce a wide series of new measures designed to further restrict alcohol sales and marketing looks likely to fail after a Scottish Parliament member’s bill introduced by Labour’s Dr Richard Simpson was rejected by the Scottish Government.
Simpson’s Alcohol (Licensing, Public Health and Criminal Justice) (Scotland) Bill seeks, among other things, to place restrictions on caffeine-containing alcoholic beverages; apply pricing controls to multipacks, and restrict aspects of alcohol marketing.
But, as it was being scrutinised by the parliament’s Health and Sport Committee in the early stages of the legislative procedure, public health minister Maureen Watt confirmed that the Scottish Government would not be supporting its progression to stage 2.
Ministers welcomed the bill’s aim of tackling abuse of alcohol but there were difficulties with some of its measures, she said.
During the committee scrutiny the issue of bottle marking was discussed and was said to have the support of Police Scotland.
Some members of the committee had visited Newcastle to research a scheme used there which was said to be useful in many ways.
It was said to enable police to identify licensed retailers who were behaving responsibly.
But a Scottish Government official told the committee that no evidence on bottle marking had been presented in Scotland in recent years and it had proved difficult to find evidence of outcomes of any bottle marking schemes in the past.
