Five changes in the law have been rolled out by the government this week regarding pub licensing. Cigarette vending machines are now illegal in all pubs licensees can however sell cigarettes etc from behind the bar but they must be under the counter and any premises advertising the fact they sell cigarettes can face a fine of up to £5k they could even find themselves doing a 6 months prison sentence. You will now be able to order a scooner of beer or lager which equals 2 thirds of a pint and brewers are rushing new glass wear to pubs as I write. Wine will now be available in 75ml measures ( I can't see the point in that to be honest) we always sold ours in the 187ml bottles, I do believe people are robbed when they buy it by the glass... but 75ml ? Beers and lagers with below 2.8% abv (strength) will now recieve a 50% reduction in beer tax but guess what there aren't many and those and pints above 7.5% abv will incur a 25% rise but to be honest apart from some knock your socks off real ale there's not many of them available either. Greene King, JW Lees and Carlsberg are looking to launch lower strength beers and lagers to cash in on the reduced tax levys. In fact Carlsberg are rolling out a new reduced abv of Skol (yeuch) instead of 3% it will now be 2.8% abv.
From Friday the minimum wage increased by 15p to £6.08 for adults over-21.
6p to £4.98 for 18-20 year olds an hour
4p to £3.68 an hour for 16-17 year olds
10p to £2.60 for apprentices.
The law on vending machines has been brought in to prevent children from buying cigarettes which is fair enough although I doubt it will have much if any impact on underage smoking. What will be interesting is how much pubs and clubs will charge for the brands under the counter. We used to buy cigarettes from Bookers and to be honest there really isn't much in it.
