Call for end to cut-price drinking

MPs have called for an end to cut-price alcohol after a review showed a "heavy burden" being placed on police by alcohol-related disorder.

The Home Affairs Select Committee report, Policing in the 21st Century, found that nearly half of victims of violence (45%) said their attacker had been drinking.

In addition to criticising the move to 24-hour drinking, MPs suggested one way to lessen the impact would be to impose a legal minimum price on alcohol.

Committee chairman Keith Vaz said that pubs and clubs - some offering 'all-you-can-drink' deals for only £10 - were trying to compete with the cheap alcohol on sale at supermarkets.

Speaking on BBC Radio Four's Today, he added: "Happy hours lead to unhappy communities. Loss leaders in supermarkets cause real misery to city centres on a Saturday night.

"The cause-and-effect means that our police officers are spending far too much of their precious time on dealing with alcohol-related crime."

The director of communications for the British Beer and Pub Association, Mark Hastings, said the organisation supported a ban on "irresponsible promotions" in pubs and clubs, and supported the committee's call for a ban on loss leaders.

"There has been broad and growing concern over the role played by supermarkets when it comes to loss leading promotions, and their role in fuelling excessive drinking," he added.

"It is time this practice ended."

IMAGEIan Nicholson/PA Wire