Ontrac now tackles UK’s alcohol regulations!

Hard on the heels of tackling drug supplies and violence towards women and girls, Ontrac is now braced to organise the Home Office’s nationwide consultation on the ‘New Code of Practice for Alcohol Retailers’. With this latest win Ontrac’s team will once again swing into action managing a total of ten stakeholder events across the UK and Wales with key players from local authorities, police, health and the alcohol industry – both on-trade, off-trade and producers.

Ontrac - whose tender proposal was described as “first class” by the Home Office - will also be responsible for helping to source ‘focus groups’ throughout the ten regions that will be representative of the local population: young adults, the elderly, women, problem drinkers and victims of alcohol-related crime.

Project Director Claire Shand said: “Once again we are really delighted to have got the chance to work on a vitally important public consultation. This will be another incredibly busy but rewarding 10 weeks of stakeholder events, route planning, feedback from local communities and those in the alcohol industry – as well as visits from Government ministers.

As events unfold around the country we will keep you posted with updates…

About the project:

The Home Office recently published ‘Safe. Sensible. Social. Selling Alcohol Responsibly: A Consultation on the New Code of Practice for Alcohol Retailers’. As part of the overall consultative process, the Home Office is holding a series of stakeholder engagement events with key national stakeholders from the enforcement, local authority, health and third sectors as well as the alcohol industry (on-trade, off-trade and producers). And these will be staged and managed by Ontrac.

The Home office’s objectives are to gather a wide range of views so they can make sure they “hit the right targets” – those premises whose retail practices result in high levels of crime, disorder and public nuisance – and in the most effective ways.

They also want to make sure they get a balanced perspective using input from those who would be immediately affected by the code: these will include licensed retailers, consumers, licensing authorities, enforcement agencies, any other interested groups and members of communities.

The events:

There will be a total of 10 events, one in each of the 9 Government Office Regions in England and one in Wales.

Each event will last for one day, be hosted by a facilitator, and involve frontline practitioners in the alcohol industry event. There will also be ‘focus group events’ involving members of the general public, and a mobile exhibition, accessible to the general public, prior to the event.

Dates and times have yet to be confirmed but will take place between 7th July and 6th August 2009.