As you read this we will have just experienced the ‘Super Saturday’ blockbuster day of sport with an estimated two million extra pints being sold. We hope some of them may have been yours!
Less satisfactory for those with Scottish premises is that last Friday saw the deadline for submission of Scottish personal licence renewals for the vast majority, with repeated reports that the required take up has been less than complete. For those who should have applied but have failed to do so, barring any last minute reprieve from the Scottish Government, many personal licences will be lost come the end of August with a consequent risk to continuity of trading for premises where they may be named as DPM. Operators without systems for renewal already in place and actioned would be well advised to check the position of their management teams over this. See: ‘Scotland – Last chance for licence renewals‘.
Food Safety: Judge reminds operators duty of care they owe to customers with allergies
A recent Court of Appeal case has once again given a timely reminder to operators of their duty of care to customers with allergies. At the conclusion of the case the President of the Queen’s Bench Division, Sir Brian Leveson declared in part of the case’s Judgement:
“84. There is now a general awareness of the potential risks to those who suffer from allergies and, as a result, it should be understood that the courts will rigorously scrutinise the way in which restaurants discharge the duty of care that they owe to such customers.”
Operators reflecting on these comments, should revisit their due diligence systems and training for staff regarding Food Safety and their duty of care for customers (particularly) with allergies. The operator at the heart of his case was jailed.
Below cost sales – Guidance
The prohibition on the sale of alcohol below ‘cost’ has long been a mandatory condition of all premises licences in England & Wales. It came into effect on 28th May 2014.
The Government define ‘cost’ as the amount of ‘duty plus VAT’, defined as the level of alcohol duty (‘duty’) for a product plus value added tax (‘VAT’) payable on the duty element of the product price.
The Home Office has recently issued new guidance providing a single point of reference for suppliers of alcohol and local authorities in England and Wales for banning the sale of alcohol below the cost of duty plus
Sale of plastic straws and drink stirrers
The Government has announced its response to a consultation on a potential ban on sale of plastic straws, drink stirrers and cotton buds. The Government will introduce a ban with exemptions on the supply of plastic drinking straws to the end user in England by April 2020.
Ban on polystyrene food boxes may be coming…
Takeaway boxes and cups made from expanded polystyrene are proposed to be banned as the Government targets rarely recycled plastic that ends up in incinerators and landfill sites.
Scotland – Deposit Return Scheme (DRS)
Scotland was the first part of the UK to announce that is was planning to bring forward a deposit return scheme. Following the closure of their public consultation on a Deposit Return Scheme the Scottish government have published their analysis of the responses and confirmed their intention to move forward with the Policy.
Gambling – Defining Gambling Harm
As part of their recently launched National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms a new framework to understand gambling harms experienced by children and young people has now been published by the Gambling Commission. The new framework document can be found here.
The document has two stated objectives:
- to provide a working definition of gambling-related harms and situate this within a new framework for policy and regulatory action, and
- drawing on this definition, to outline a range of measures and metrics which relate to these harms and identify which could robustly be built into a framework for measuring the social costs of gambling-related harms.
And finally…
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