Memorandum by the National Union of Students
(AL82)
INTRODUCTION
As the national body that represents 600 affiliated
students' unions in both the further education and higher education
sectors, the National Union of Students (NUS) represents over
seven million students across the UK.
NUS works with students, member students' unions,
external partners, and UK political processes to develop and implement
our policy priorities. These priorities are determined by our
democratic procedures.
Many students' unions, particularly those in
higher education institutions (HEIs) also run their own licensed
premises, which raised approximately £60 million in
bar sales in 2008-09. NUS takes an interest in alcohol from the
perspective of both responsible drinking and responsible retailing.
We work to bring synergy to these roles in the creation and implementation
of policy and best practice.
SUMMARY
— Students' unions are by far some of the
most responsible retailers of alcohol. We are nevertheless committed
to working to ensure that individual irresponsible behaviour is
replaced by sophisticated and innovative approaches to responsible
retailing and drinking among students' unions and students.
— NUS is acutely aware that there remain
significant numbers of students who do drink to excess, and we
take our role in educating students seriously. We have long sought
to encourage responsible drinking amongst students, as well as
responsible retailing by students' unions. Negative perceptions
to do with excessive alcohol and students persist, particularly
in the media. There is no room for complacency in tackling these
perceptions, which we believe contribute to the problem rather
than attempt to find solutions to issues surrounding alcohol,
which are endemic in wider society and are in no way the sole
preserve or responsibility of students.
— NUS and our member students' unions have
longstanding and ongoing working relationships with external partners
to promote responsible drinking, including with organisations
such as Drink Aware and the Portman Group, and retailers such
as Diageo.
— We regularly send out materials on safe
drinking to students' unions for use in local campaigns, and use
initiatives like Best Bar None to promote, recognise and reward
responsible retailing of alcohol by students' unions.
— NUS was engaged in and responded to the
Department of Health's consultation, "Safe Sensible Social"
to address issues such as units, labelling pricing, a mandatory
code on alcohol retailing and the role of information, materials
and campaigns and changing behaviour.
This document is broken down into three broad
sections:
1. Students, Students' Unions and Alcohol
2. NUS and Students' Unions: Current and Future
Work and Partnerships (NUS Training Healthy FE and Healthy HE,
Drink Aware Corporate Social Responsibility, Best Bar None)
3. NUS Policy (Initiations, External Bar Crawls,
Units and Labelling, Mandatory Licensing Code and Minimum Pricing,
Education, Advertising and Communication and Alcohol Retail Policy
Framework)
1. Students, Students' Unions and Alcohol
NUS does not wish to generalise with regard
to students. As a group, students are not homogenous. Many are
mature students, many are from overseas, and many are from a variety
of different faith groups. Almost 60 per cent of students
work during term-time, and most are acutely conscious of the need
to get a good qualification. The traditional school-leaver student
is in the minority, and the idea that all students are drinkers
is inaccurate. Indeed, despite the popular perception of their
behaviour, students report broadly similar spending on alcohol
with the wider population.
Students' unions are on the whole responsible
licensees. They are also evolving as the market they serve changes,
with many creating alcohol free spaces, coffee shops and juice
bars within their buildings to cater for the increasing number
of students who choose not to drink alcohol.
Even amongst those who do drink, habits are
changing. Full-time students are spending less on alcohol now
than they were a decade ago—50% less in students' unions
2007 compared to 1997. When they do drink they are more likely
to do so at home, having bought alcohol in supermarkets and off
licenses, such sales have now exceeded spending in bars and clubs
more generally. More problematically, when they do choose to go
out, there is fiercer competition from local clubs and pubs, often
part of large, national chains, many of whom aggressively target
the student market with cut-price drinks promotions.
Any commercial profit made by students' unions
in alcohol retail is reinvested in services: welfare advice, sports
clubs and societies, volunteering projects, student media and
a host of other activities. Students' unions want to act responsibly
and most do: but the need to maintain sales in order to fund these
important services has resulted in some students' unions using
similar drinks promotions, which we know can contribute to binge
drinking and consequently anti-social behaviour.
2. NUS and Students' Unions: Current and
Future Work and Partnerships
NUS Training
NUS takes a leading role in setting an agenda
on responsible drinking and retailing. As part of our annual series
of summer training events for student officer we hosted sessions
on responsible drinking, minimum pricing, irresponsible external
bar crawl companies, initiations and protecting students on sports
tours.
Healthy FE and Healthy HE
NUS is a member of the Healthy FE[96]
and Healthy HE national groups and we are creating a range of
campaigns that support this government agenda. NUS is particularly
interested in securing funding to run a range of campaigns and
initiatives that allow students to develop projects based upon
a local need and issues A number of unions such as Portsmouth,
Reading, Southampton Solent and UCL have engaged a number of students
to act as fresher's reps—giving a range of advice on how
to stay healthy, look after themselves and to promote responsible
drinking.
Drink Aware
NUS is currently entering a new relationship
with Drink Aware to establish to build on our past collaborative
work and establish a more strategic partnership for the future.
We are looking to run a range of long term campaigns including
a responsible drinking version of the Best Bar None initiative,
a range of fresher's week activities, an education program for
the 14-19 agenda, a national training programme and some
specific trend research in the student market. This year NUS are
supporting the new Drink Aware campaign "Why let good times
go bad?"—we are distributing campaign materials to
all of our unions and encouraging students' unions to get active
in this campaign.[97]
Corporate Social Responsibility
NUS is currently working to maintain and build
upon strategic partnerships with many organisations to develop
our joint work on alcohol. We have worked with Diageo and other
drinks companies to address responsible drinking within union
bars and external premises—we have worked with Diageo on
the "Know what's in it?" campaign which has reached
750,000 students across 55 universities.[98]
We have worked with Diageo on the "Are you on top of your
game" campaign to promote responsible drinking to students
and young adults across ten university bars in the UK.
Best Bar None
The Best Bar None is an awards scheme for licensed
premises, currently running in over 80 locations across the
UK.[99]
It was developed by the Manchester City Centre Safe project to
address alcohol related crime and improve the night time environment.
It was felt that in order for progress to be made in delivering
a safer night time economy, a new partnership approach was needed
alongside more traditional law enforcement activity. Best Bar
None schemes provide an incentive for the operators of licensed
premises to improve their standards of operation to the level
of a commonly agreed national benchmark.
Best Bar None is an accreditation and awards
programme that was developed by Greater Manchester Police. It
aims to shift the way of policing licensed outlets from "stick
to carrot" and has lead to impressive reported reductions
in alcohol related crime in the areas it has been adopted.
It has four sections covering the four licensing
objectives of the Licensing Act 2003
Section A—Prevention of crime and disorder
Section C—Prevention of Public Nuisance
Section D—Protection of Children from Harm
NUS was the first other organisation to adopt
the scheme in 2004. There are now 95 schemes running in various
locations throughout the UK
NUS is still the only organisation to administer
the scheme making awards on a national rather than regional basis.
In the first year there were 49 entering students' unions
with 32 gaining accreditation. And an average score of 68%.
In 2008-09 we had 72 entrants all gaining accreditation.
Scores have moved from an average of 68% in 2004 to over
86% in 2009.
The NUS Scheme measure 85 criteria using
both off-site evaluation of documented policy and written procedures
as well as an on-site assessment of operational standards and
practice during trading. These criteria split into essential,
desired and bonus points.
Any shortcomings in areas of legal compliance
are highlighted to the outlet for immediate correction. A full
report detailing each outlets performance and the average performance
against that criterion is given to the outlet along with guidance
on how to improve their score.
Awards are made in six regions, one most improved
outlet and one national winner. The winners are based purely on
the scores generated rather than any subjective judgement by sponsors
or other judges.
We believe it not only ensure outlets have suitable
policy and procedures in place but also that it serves to educate
outlets on areas of weakness in procedure and delivery and to
ensure that these are addressed in a cycle of continuous improvement.
3. NUS Policy on Alcohol
Student Initiations
NUS conference has voted to help individual
students' unions to regulate dangerous and reckless initiation
ceremonies in students' union clubs, societies and premises. This
follows a number of high-profile cases, including those in which
individual students have died.
Many students' unions across the UK have chosen
to ban initiation ceremonies, while some have introduced policies
that regulate their time, location and content of initiation ceremonies.
NUS fully supports them in doing so.
NUS' best practice guide for students' unions
will include ways to monitor and deal with initiations and how
to educate students on the dangers of alcohol fuelled initiations.
External Bar Crawls
A great concern for NUS and students' unions
are a number of companies operating organised bar crawls, such
as Carnage UK, which actively encourage irresponsible drinking
and a binge culture amongst its participants.[100]
These have been widely documented in the media during fresher's
weeks. Although students' unions are rarely involved with these
events, and despite the fact that NUS condemns them, they add
to the negative views of student drinking and of students in general.
Many students' unions have individual policies on external bar
crawls and specifically on Carnage UK. We believe local authorities
should use their existing powers to clampdown on them wherever
possible.
NUS has a vision of a society in which responsible
drinking is the norm, and where young people, students and students'
unions are not viewed in a negative light because of excessive
alcohol consumption, both perceived and real. We do not want a
drinks trade that promotes binge drinking amongst young people
and whose tactics put pressure on students' unions to follow suit.
We do want a student population who not only know the risks of
excessive alcohol consumption but can accurately judge their own
intake and act responsibly—and without blanket bans on alcohol
off-sales purchase for younger people such as that proposed in
Scotland.
Units and Labelling
Consumers must be educated as to the units in
their drinks, and despite the launch of information campaigns
such as Know Your Limits, NUS is concerned that most still lack
sufficient awareness of the units system or its significance.
The confusion that arises from unit limits being quoted variously
in terms of number per week or number per day, as well as the
different amounts between genders, compounds this problem.
As a result the number of units listed on a
container of alcohol can have little meaning, especially on large
bottles of spirits where the entire unit content of the bottle
is listed rather than the number of units per measure. And even
when consumers do have some understanding of the unit system,
the alcohol content of drinks can change (eg Jack Daniel's), and
render the previous understanding obsolete.
Whilst NUS supports the principle of alcohol
unit labelling, we are concerned that at present it will have
little of the desired impact whilst the units system is so little
understood. Any system therefore has to be supported by higher
profile, innovative campaigns to educate the public on the units
system and what it means for them as an individual.
Mandatory Licensing Code and Minimum Pricing
NUS would welcome the introduction of a mandatory
code on alcohol retailing, as we believe that voluntary codes
are proving ineffective. It only takes one bar or supermarket
to opt out of a voluntary code in a particular area for pressure
to be put on other retailers to abandon the code in similar fashion.
Such a code would also reinforce the good work many students'
unions undertake.
We would also suggest the Government looks at
ways of including in the code companies who organise bar crawls
and other similar events at a variety of licensed premises, given
the impact that they have on local communities, and the health
and well-being of the participants.
The content of any code should be carefully
considered, and as suggested in the consultation document, the
Government should ensure any provisions are discussed in detail
through a future consultation. As part of this code we believe
the Government should consider the inclusion of minimum pricing
of alcohol, particularly for supermarket off-sales, but also where
bars are concerned, at least in respect of the promotions they
are allowed to use.
Such a minimum price should not be a blunt instrument;
it should take into account the strength and the amount of units
in one serving. For example, the price could increase with the
strength of the drink, so as to encourage consumers to choose
weaker alternatives, and different approaches could be designed
for different types of drink like beer, wine or spirits.
Any code should also ensure premises have effective
training for staff, and strategies to deal with vulnerable people
who consume too much alcohol on the premises, so that they are
not merely ejected from the building and left to their own devices.
However it is imperative that any proposals on staffing are carefully
considered and implemented so as not to impact on the employment
prospects of part-time workers, many of whom will be students
and who will rely on earnings from bar work to see them through
their courses.
We also believe the Government should examine
some other approaches, such as giving premises greater flexibility
at the end of the evening to extend the "drinking up"
period from 15 minutes to one or even two hours, with music
still being played and water, soft drinks and food still being
served. This would allow for a longer, safer period of dispersal,
and for consumers to be less intoxicated when they leave the bar.
In any event there must be support for licensed
premises to develop the necessary standards where these are not
already being met, particularly for smaller organisations with
fewer financial resources.
We agree that differential approaches must be
taken to different types of premises. A large supermarket has
far greater resources—and arguably far greater responsibility—than
a village hall putting on occasional events. Similarly, students'
unions could be treated separately to purely commercial organisations,
depending on the provisions of the code, as their aims and objectives
will be significantly different.
Exactly what allowances you could make for the
size or type of organisation would depend on the final code, but
broadly we believe that charitable and non-profit organisations
should be protected from excessive expenditure on measures designed
to tackle problems relating to the high-risk premises identified
in the consultation document.
We would support any measure that would ensure
compliance with any mandatory code. However, as with the code
itself, enforcement provisions must take into account different
types of organisations and be proportional to the significance
any breach. Serious breaches should however result in serious
penalties.
Education, Advertising and Communication
More needs to be done to educate consumers on
safe drinking and on the units system. However the Government
must be more innovative in its campaigns and have separate initiatives
to target different groups of drinkers. For example, Heriot-Watt
Students' Union carried out a specific campaign to target women
drinkers, Boozy Betty.
We believe therefore that peer-to-peer education
campaigns are vitally important for young people to not only take
notice of the campaign messages but to take them on board and
change their behaviour. The Government should support and develop
peer education campaigns wherever possible.
We support the principle of including units
information on advertising, but, as previously discussed, we remain
concerned the units system is too little understood for this to
have the greatest impact.
Alcohol Retail Policy Framework
For some time there have been discussions across
the student movement about the need to ensure the responsible
retailing of alcohol. As interest from the press and general society
on alcohol related issues has increased, discussions in the students'
union movement have intensified. This has led to the creation
of an alcohol retail policy framework, which addresses how students'
unions should address issues such as responsible retailing, safety,
community engagement, communications, dispersal, crime and disorder.
October 2009
96 http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk.½hfep Back
97
http://www.drinkaware.co.uk/campaigns/why-let-good-times-go-bad Back
98
http://www.diageo.com/en-row.CorporateCitizenship/PromotingResponsibledrinking Back
99
http//www.bbnuk.com/ Back
100
http://www.carnageuk.com/ Back
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