Sales of alcohol to drunks
Karen Hughes and Mark A Bellis Centre for Public Health
Liverpool John Moores University
Introduction
• Laws addressing sales of alcohol to drunks for ~400 years
• Licensing Act 2003 (S141):
– Knowingly sells/attempts to sell alcohol to a person who is drunk
– Allows alcohol to be sold to such a person
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Prosecutions 7 17 8 3 12 18 ?
PNDs 81 66 90 74 78 94 63
Prosecutions and penalty notices for disorder, England and Wales
Sale of alcohol to a drunken person
• High levels of drunkenness seen in UK nightlife suggests
law not being complied with or enforced
House of Commons, Ministry of Justice
Bellis et al, 2010; Hughes et al, 2008
Nightlife Alcohol Use
• Night out in the North West
• 3 cities, n=214
• Age 16-62 (63% 18-24 years)
• 53% had pre-loaded
• Average alcohol consumption
o By interview
o Females 11 units, Males 16 units
o By end of night
o Females 16 units, Males 27 units
• Average Blood Alcohol
Concentration (BAC) 0.12%
Testing sales of alcohol to drunks
• Student actors, developed act in collaboration with police
– Display extreme drunkenness & ensure recognised by bar servers
– Researchers to record bar environmental factors
• 73 randomly selected pubs, bars and nightclubs
– Weds to Sunday, 9pm to 3am, May 2013
Successful Sales • 60% Wednesdays, 94% Fridays
• 78% before midnight, 96% after
Served
84%
Refused
16%
Bar servers often clearly
recognised actors as drunk
1 in 5 sales tried to sell double
Hughes et al, 2014
Actors’ notes: alcohol served
Asked for drink. They only served doubles.
Asked "Are you sure you are okay for this?"
then served
Even with [actor’s] head on bar and slurring
words, there was no hesitation for sale. In
fact, the barman offered a double
When bar tender was serving drink the
other bar tender said "you serving her?
Look at her eyes" - he said "well, I've
poured it now”.
Server asked “have you been drinking
elsewhere tonight?” I said “yeah” and they
said “OK, I’ll give you one but no more
tonight, you’ve had enough”
Actors’ notes: alcohol refused
Bar tender touched my arm and said “sorry
love, you’ve had a little too much to drink”.
He asked me if I’d had enough and then
went on to say “I don’t want you to fall
down the stairs”. Then as I was leaving he
said “be careful and watch out for the
step”.
Server said “can’t serve you honey, would
you like a glass of water?”.
Bar tender poured drink, discussed with
another bar maid then said “sorry mate,
you’re too drunk”.
Service to drunks and bar environment
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
None 1 or 2 2 or 4 5 to 7 8 to 10
% o
f v
enu
es s
erv
ing
dru
nk
act
ors
Number of PMP markers
o Bars with door supervisors more likely to serve: 95% v 69%
o 10 markers of poorly managed and problematic (PMP) bars:
Cheap drink promotions low level of seating poor lighting
noise crowding young customers drunk customers
rowdiness young bar staff
Key Issues & Challenges
• Legislation preventing sales to drunks largely ignored
– Lack of compliance, enforcement and public awareness of law
• Difficult to identify?
– Not at extreme level of drunkenness portrayed in our study
• Impossible to police all bars?
– Not necessary, awareness and realistic threat of prosecution
• Damaging to night time economy?
– Not just about getting extremely drunk
– Change social norms, attract broader clientele, reduce preloading
• No-one is getting hurt
– Vulnerable people – can’t make rational choices about health
– A&E services, police, hurting others, opportunity costs
• Great potential benefits from addressing sales to drunks
– Reduce burden on health & policing, improve nightlife
Solutions
• Success in preventing underage sales
– Test purchasing:
– 2004, 50% sold alcohol
– 2007, 15%
• Challenge 21 / 25
• Posters and badges
– Raise public awareness
– Support staff
• Widely accepted by industry
• Used as licencing condition
• Similar approach for drunkenness?
Solutions?
• Raise public awareness of the law
• Support staff training in service refusal skills/strategies
• Increase enforcement activity
STAD project, Stockholm Sweden
• Problem analysis
– Actor study – 95% of bars sold drunks
• Developed Action Group
– police, council, public health, licensing, bar owners…
• Increased enforcement
– Tailored feedback to licence holder
• Developed responsible beverage training programme
– Legislation, alcohol effects, service refusal, conflict management
• Media awareness raising
Reduced to 30%
Wallin et al, 2005
Finland, PAKKA programme
Warpenius et al, 2010; Holmila and Warpenius, 2012
Finland, PAKKA programme
• Multi-component intervention
• Multi-agency steering group
• Responsible beverage service training
• Enforcement activity
• Media awareness & education programmes
• Reducing drunkenness as a stated aim
Norway
• >80% sell alcohol to drunk actors
• Enforcement
• Licence withdrawals
• Education
• Servers
• Enforcers
Sales of alcohol to
drunk actors
77% in 2004
58% in 2006
Thank You
Karen Hughes
Centre for Public Health
Liverpool John Moores University
Mark Bellis
Director of Policy, Research and Development
Public Health Wales