'Vodka ice cream for children’: Government accused of helping alcohol companies sell booze products to children

 
Law change: The Deregulation Bill repeals a 2003 law that made it a criminal offence to sell liqueur confectionery to anyone under the age of 16 (File image)
Standard Reporter17 November 2014
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The Government is facing accusations that it is helping drinks companies sell alcoholic products to children.

The charges were made in relation to The Deregulation Bill which is currently going through the House of Lords and which repeals a 2003 law that made it a criminal offence to sell liqueur confectionery to anyone under the age of 16.

Speaking question time in the Lords today, Labour peer Lord Brooke accused ministers of bowing to pressure from the alcohol industry.

He said: "The number of children who are presenting drunk at A&E has gone up substantially in 2013."

And he asked Home Office spokeswoman Baroness Williams of Trafford: "Isn't it true that the Government has responded to the industry's pressure to remove the law that presently deters the sale of liqueur to children in other forms in food.

"Because the sale of alcohol in liquid forms has been declining the industry is now seeking to extend the areas in which it is selling alcohol in other forms - particularly those available to children - like ice cream with vodka in it, sorbets with vodka in it.

"Why have they responded solely to the industry's pressure to repeal that act which protects children when no one else - parents, the chief medical officer - has asked the Government to do this?"

Lady Williams told him: "I do recall when I was a child the one sweet that would never be eaten was the chocolate liqueur because they were so revolting. Should a child decide to eat them, they would have to eat vast quantities of chocolate to have the equivalent of one glass of wine.

"In term of the ice creams or the sorbets, they are subject to the same rules as alcohol themselves and cannot be sold to children under the age of 18."

But shadow Home Office minister Baroness Smith of Basildon asked for Lady Williams to confirm that the Deregulation Bill would not change the current position on selling alcohol in forms other than liquid to children under the age of 16.

Lady Williams told her: "The rules are that 0.2 litres per kilogram is the limit and that is to stop vast quantities of alcohol being put into food."

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