Draft mandatory code of practice is revealed |
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| Written by Claire Weekes | |||||||||||||
| Thursday, 09 October 2008 | |||||||||||||
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EXCLUSIVE: By Shirley Webb The Government has given the strongest indication yet that it is considering a mandatory code of practice for the whole drinks trade in a bid to curb what it perceives to be a binge-drinking culture.  Harpers has seen a confidential Home Office draft code, which has been circulated to health officials and drink companies to encourage response to consultation on the next stage of the Government's national alcohol strategy, which ends on Tuesday. The 26-page document indicates tough new legislation placing restrictions on the packaging, promotion and sale of alcohol. It also includes a raft of mandatory and targeted conditions on what should be included on the labels of alcoholic drinks. The conditions outlined would become either "mandatory licence conditions" or "standalone criminal offences". The draft also indicates that a central regulation authority - possibly the Food Standards Agency - will take control of the code, with trading standards officers and the police monitoring and enforcing it on the ground. In addition to the code, new laws concerning price and promotions are likely to be outlined in a Health Bill due out in the autumn of 2009. The subject of promotions falls outside the remit of the Licensing Act 2003, under which part of the code will be introduced. If enacted, the code would make the Portman Group's voluntary code of practice redundant and could lead to the group's demise, industry sources have indicted. A Portman Group spokesman denied the speculation: "The Government has praised our code and we will be arguing there is no public interest in duplicating something that works." Tell your MP what you think of the proposed legislation by writing an open letter to your MP. Find out more and download our template letter here. A new policy paper due to be released by Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat leader, next month, is also expected to back the Government's proposal for a mandatory code and curb on prices and promotions. Key points:
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hesfordj
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The problem here is that the EU already has guidelines on wine labelling. This effectively makes the UK different and forces producers and/or importers to repackage their good for the UK. Who is going to bear that cost? |
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Warren Edwardes
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Continually changing labelling legislation is prejudicial to small wineries and importers. And the whole concept of units is misguided as they are different in every country. Guidelines should be in CL of alcohol (same as UK units) and these should be the same EU wide. Labels were changed just recently to include "contains sulphites". How many people have tasted a wine without sulphites? Surely "contains wine" or just "wine" would do? If really felt necessary "[SO3]" could be used instead of "contains sulphites in 27 languages on the label. Labelling should be properly thought through and changes made every 3 years at most. And they should be standard across the EU. |
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Labels were changed just recently to include "contains sulphites". How many people have tasted a wine without sulphites? Surely "contains wine" or just "wine" would do? If really felt necessary "[SO3]" could be used instead of "contains sulphites in 27 languages on the label.Really i am impressed from this post....the person who create this post it was a great human..thanks for shared this with us.i found this informative and interesting blog so i think so its very useful and knowledge able.. find free online bingo site |
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