Marathon Alcohol Debate To Begin

MPs will begin a marathon debate on the committee stage of the Alcohol Reform Bill on Tuesday afternoon.

The rewrite of alcohol legislation follows a Law Commission review, but the Government’s response has not satisfied opposition parties and some MPs believe the debate will take up the vast bulk of this week’s parliamentary business.

The Government has tabled a large number of amendments to the select committee report on the bill, with the report itself almost 300 pages long.

Opposition parties have also produced volumes of amendment covering everything from alcohol labelling through to minimum pricing regulations and liquor selling restrictions.

There is little unity across parties and Labour MPs want to enforce individual votes for MPs during the committee stage though National had decided to cast a bloc vote on amendments. Depending on the process undertaken the casting and counting of votes could alone take up many hours.

MPs have already voted on the minimum legal age to purchase alcohol and decided to retain it at 18.

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