International evidence

Licensing law in Scotland and Ireland: outcomes from changes to the law

Scotland:

The Nicholson Committee and Scottish Licensing Law

The Nicholson Committee on Licensing Law was set up in 2001 to review all aspects of liquor licensing law and practice in Scotland, with particular reference to the implications for health and public order. The basis of licensing law and practice at the time was the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976, which followed a review by the Clayson Committee published in 1973. The 1976 Act incorporated most of the Clayson Committee’s recommendations, essentially to create a more liberal system ‘in the hope that this would encourage sensible social drinking’ (as the Nicholson report puts it). The 1976 Act extended normal opening hours in Scotland to 11pm, but gave licensing boards the entitlement to grant extensions to those hours. Clayson envisaged that the extensions would be granted only in special circumstances, but in fact the figures from 2001 indicate that about 90% of licensed premises had one or more regular extensions, with many running to 3 or 4am.  

The Nicholson Committee considered evidence on the relationship between licensing law and drinking culture. The Committee, for example, heard submissions linking the liberal licensing regimes in Southern Europe with more relaxed drinking styles and lack of drunkenness and disorder. However, like the Clayson Committee before it, the Committee doubted that replicating in Scotland a Southern European style licensing regime would lead to Southern European style drinking patterns:
‘In our opinion cultural backgrounds and norms probably play a much larger part in determining social behaviour than any laws regulating the sale and consumption of alcohol, and we therefore doubt whether it can safely be assumed that what works in, for example, Italy or Spain will necessarily work here.’

In fact, having balanced the evidence, the Committee thought that changes to the licensing laws could not, of themselves, ‘remove the undesirable consequences of over-indulgence in alcohol’.

Ireland:

The Commission on Liquor Licensing

In 2000, Ireland established the Commission on Liquor Licensing to review the liquor licensing system while taking account of the social, health and economic interests of a modern society. The Intoxicating Liquor Act 2000 extended opening hours to 11.30pm on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and to 12.30am on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The Commission heard submissions citing problems with the new hours, such as increased incidence of drunkenness, greater public disorder and vandalism, more accidents and injuries, a negative impact on work and training, interference with education, reduced participation in sporting activities and increased incidence of teenage pregnancies.  

Although these problems must be set against a rising trend in alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems in Ireland in recent years, the new opening hours seemed to have exacerbated the scale and extent of these problems.  Publicans reported to the Commission that the extended hours were leading to increased incidence of violence and unruly behaviour, more road accidents involving alcohol and poorer quality of life for publicans and customers. The Gardai annual reports for 2000 and 2001 show a significant increase in alcohol-related offences and public order offences since 2000. However, the Commission concluded that much of the drunkenness, public disorder and violence was arising in the context of special exemption orders, which extend normal hours.

As a result, on balance, the Commission did not recommend that the new licensing hours be returned to pre-2000 hours. However, they did recommend that, because of absenteeism on Fridays, particularly by young people and students, the Thursday hours be restricted to the same as those in place for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. They also addressed the granting of exemption orders by widening the grounds upon which the licensing authority must be satisfied.