The BBPA has today relaunched a poster campaign to help raise awareness and understanding of the law around serving drunks, to coincide with Global Beer Responsibility Day on Friday, 16th September.
Partnering with Drinkaware and National Pubwatch, the poster campaign is accompanied by a suite of infographics, designed to be shared across social media, and follows new survey data commissioned YouGov by the BBPA that shows more than one in four people (27 per cent) believe the statement ‘It is against the law in the UK to knowingly sell alcohol to someone who is drunk’ to be false, whilst 40 per cent of people don’t know that it is against the law to buy alcohol for someone who is drunk.
The reissued posters are available on the BBPA website and are working their way to pubs. They clearly state it is illegal to serve alcohol to a drunk person, or to buy alcohol on behalf of someone who is drunk, as per licensing law.
The two posters address each of these issues in an open and accessible way for both customers and staff, and the BBPA is working with National Pubwatch to produce a film around the issues raised in the posters, to be released later in the Autumn.
The campaign forms part of a range of initiatives from the BBPA, and the wider industry, to promote responsible drinking and help pubs operate responsibly.
On 16th September, brewers, governments, NGOs and retailers in 76 countries around the world will partner on the second annual Global Beer Responsibility Day, a worldwide effort to promote the responsible consumption of beer.
Year-round industry-led schemes, including National Pubwatch, Best Bar None, Purple Flag, and Community Alcohol Partnerships, alongside the Challenge 21 initiative, are backed by pubs across the country, and all help ensure alcohol is sold and consumed responsibly.
Brigid Simmonds, Chief Executive, BBPA, comments:“Serving drunks has long been illegal, and in the vast majority of cases, pubs are safe and responsible venues where drinks are served in a highly supervised environment by well-trained staff.
“These posters are designed to help licensees, who can be put in a very difficult position and risk breaking the law if pressured to serve drunk customers. We need to make sure that the public fully understands that these are offences, and our poster campaign, along with the new infographics, should help to raise awareness.”