ALCOHOL OVERPROVISION IN DUNDEE DUNDEE ALCOHOL LICENCE PROVISION ANALYSIS GROUP REPORT SEPTEMBER 2012 (Amended March 2013) - - 1 Table of contents Executive Summary 1. Background 2. Aim 3. Objectives 4. Evidence linking availability of alcohol to consumption and alcohol related harm 5. Geographies for data analysis 6. Alcohol availability 7. Alcohol Consumption 8. Alcohol related harm 9. Alcohol overprovision assessments in West Dunbartonshire 10. Conclusions Appendices Appendix1: Dundee alcohol licence provision analysis group members Appendix 2: Alcohol logic models - - 2 Executive Summary This report includes information on alcohol licence provision and alcohol related harm in all the Local Community Planning areas of Dundee City. The overall aims of the report are: • To collate information relating to alcohol-licence provision and alcohol-related harm across Dundee City • To provide the Dundee Licensing Board with a better overall picture of alcohol availability and alcohol-related harm • To inform the overprovision policy that will be developed by the Licensing Board. The report does not include a definition of ‘overprovision’ but instead the focus has been to: • Agree appropriate areas of analysis within which data are available that would be meaningful to local people, LCPPs and elected members • Identify indicators that will allow the overprovision policy to support all 5 licensing objectives (not just the public health objective) • Examine the data in relation to occasional licences and extensions, as well as premises licences • Contribute to the work of the Dundee Licensing Forum and support the decision-making process of the Licensing Board by improving the information available • Present local information with a specific focus on the relationship between alcohol availability and alcohol related harm The report provides Dundee City Licensing Forum and the Licensing Board a more accurate picture of alcohol availability and alcohol related harm across the City. Key findings The data presented in the report shows that the distribution of licensed premises and the pattern of alcohol-related harm is not a simple one. This is unsurprising given that: • Drinking at home, rather than within on-sales establishments, is increasingly becoming a common pattern of consumption • People will travel a few miles to purchase cheap alcohol from off-sales premises • Alcohol-related health and social harms often takes some time to develop and will be recorded on the basis of a person’s place of residence, which may not be closely related to their place of alcohol purchase • The recording of acute alcohol-related presentations to A&E departments is still based on place of residence (although work is in progress to gather information about place of alcohol consumption prior to alcohol-related presentations). As at 31 st March 2011, there were 430 premises licences in force in Dundee City, 17 (3 on-sale, 14 off- sale) of these being new applications in 2010/11. There were also 854 personal licences in force in Dundee City, 164 of these being granted during 2010/11. There was also 1 personal licence application refused in 2010/11. - - 3 At a national level, the overall annual cost to the public purse of alcohol related harm (including health, crime, fires etc.) is estimated at £3.5 billion. At an individual level, there is harm to an increasingly high numbers of children and young people whose parents and carers have alcohol misuse problems. The Licensing Board, through its Licensing Policy and enforcement of current Licensing Law, has the ability and responsibility to contribute to a shift towards a healthier relationship with alcohol in Dundee City. More specific findings: Across the City as a whole, and in 6 of the 8 multi-member wards, there are more on- than off-licensed premises. In Community Regeneration Areas, however, a very different pattern is seen with 3 of the 6 areas having a far greater number of off- than on-licensed premises, and the overall balance being much more towards off-licensed premises. This is significant because: • Off-licences sell alcohol at a markedly cheaper prices • Off-licence sales allow for much more unsupervised and unregulated alcohol consumption, especially (but not exclusively) amongst young people • Under-age drinkers are far more likely to purchase alcohol from off-licence than on-licence premises There is a clear association between greater deprivation and greater levels of alcohol-related health harm, alcohol related hospital admissions, alcohol related A&E attendances, alcohol related deaths, and alcohol related mental health problems. Individuals from the most deprived areas account for more than 5 times the number of presentations compared with those from the most affluent areas. The rate of alcohol related A&E attendances across Dundee varied from 1,994.5 per 100,000 in Lochee to 445.6 in the LCPP area of The Ferry. In 2010/11, there were 1,028 alcohol related hospital discharges for Dundee City residents, showing a 10% increase since 2009/10. Coldside, Maryfield and Lochee have had consistently higher alcohol related hospital admission rates than the Dundee average. In 2010/11, the discharge rate varied from 974.1 per 100,000 population in Lochee to 366.1 in The Ferry. The overall alcohol related death rate for Dundee for the period 2005-9 was 186 deaths per 100,000 population compared to the highest rate of 288 per 100,000 in Coldside and the lowest of 76 in The Ferry. - - 4 1 Background Section 7 of the Licensing (Scotland) act 2005 requires Licensing Board Policy Statements to include a specific statement of the extent to which the Board considers there to be overprovision of either licensed premises generally, or a particular type of licensed premises (such as vertical drinking establishments, or off-licensed premises) within any designated locality within the Board’s area. Interpretation and implementation of this section of the Act has been variable. A few Licensing Boards have developed detailed overprovision statements (see section 5 below). In 2011, Dundee City Local Licensing Forum agreed to ask the Alcohol and Drugs Partnership (ADP) to lead work to develop information that would help the Licensing Board progress its commitment to add a supplementary statement on overprovision into its 2010 Licensing Policy. This report is the output from that work. This report has been developed by the Dundee alcohol licence provision analysis group, chaired by Dr. Kirsty Licence (see membership list at appendix 1). 2 Aim To collate from the Alcohol and Drugs Partnership (ADP) agencies information relating to alcohol licence provision and alcohol related harm across Dundee City. This is in order to provide the Licensing Board with a better overall picture of alcohol availability and harm and to inform the overprovision policy of the Licensing Board. The group will not aim to define a ‘cut-off’ level of licences as a target/limit to be aimed for within local areas of the City. 3 Objectives • Agree appropriate areas of analysis within which data are available and which would be meaningful to local people, local community planning groups, and elected members • Identify indicators that will allow the overprovision policy to support all 5 licensing objectives, including the public health objective • Examine the data in relation to occasional licences and extensions, as well as premises licences • Contribute to the work of the Dundee City Local Licensing Forum by improving the information available to that group • Present local information in the context of the evidence of the relationship between alcohol availability and alcohol related harm It was agreed that the report would initially be presented to the Dundee City Local Licensing Forum, as the statutory body responsible for overseeing the Licensing Board’s application of the Licensing Act (2005) and the licensing objectives, including overprovision. 4 Evidence linking availability of alcohol to consumption and alcohol related harm There is a substantial body of evidence that increased availability of alcohol is associated with increased consumption, and that measures to limit availability, accessibility and affordability are likely to have a beneficial impact on both consumption and alcohol related harm. In this context, restrictions on availability may include: • Reducing economic availability (pricing) • Reducing the hours or days when alcohol can be purchased • Restricting the number of outlets where alcohol can be purchased • Increasing the minimum effective age of alcohol purchase - - 5 A review undertaken for the Scottish Executive in 2003 1 concluded that the relationship between general restrictions on alcohol availability and alcohol related harm was complex, but there was evidence that measures including restricting hours of sale, enforcement of purchase age limits, staggering closing times, and controlling outlet density were associated with reductions in alcohol related crime and disorder. A further review examined the impact of off-licence premises in particular.2 This examined features of off-licence selling including promotions, sales to under-age and intoxicated customers, and the impact of outlet density. The review concluded that: • Sales to underage customers were common in off-licence premises • Saes to intoxicated customers were also common, although there was less evidence of this than of under-age selling • There was evidence of a relationship between outlet density and assault • There was evidence of a relationship