Calling all drinks businesses: share your Responsibility Deal successes

By Gemma McKenna

Published: 10 July, 2014

Following this week's public backing of the drinks industry by the government for the work it has done to comply with the Responsibility Deal, Harpers is now giving drinks businesses the chance to share and publicise the efforts they have made.

As part of Harpers' Responsibility OK campaign we are inviting all drinks related businesses to let us know what steps you have voluntarily taken to encourage responsible drinking and tackle alcohol misuse as set out in the government's Responsiblity Deal.

Since the Responsibility Deal took shape in 2011, Harpers has been at the forefront, via our Responsibility OK campaign, championing what all sectors of the trade large and small, are doing to drive change.

On Tuesday the Department of Health and Home Office together said they were very pleased with the progress that has been made, as they announced goals achieved and six new pledges.

Among the new pledges are commitments to adhere to good practice guidelines for the responsible retailing of alcohol in the off-trade and boost the availability of low alcohol products in the on-trade. These pledges are in addition to the eight core pledges that form the Responsibility Deal already agreed by the trade and government.

Some of the trade's largest companies have already come out in support of the new pledges and have provided examples of the work they have done so far.

We would now like to hear from you about what your business is doing. Let us know by emailing Gemma McKenna or add your comments in the section below.

A Diageo spokeswoman said: "We were a founding signatory of the Responsibility Deal and we welcome these further pledges. We have always supported alcohol education and awareness and are one of the key contributors to the 'Lifeskills education and alcohol education in schools' pledge. Likewise we are proud to sign up to the 'Targeted Local Action Pledge' as we have been funded and supported Purple Flag, Community Alcohol Partnerships, Best Bar None, Pubwatch and Street Pastors for some years now across the country."

Catherine May, corporate affairs director at SABMiller, said: "Bar, pub and off-licence staff can play a hugely important role in preventing under-age drinking and anti-social behaviour in their local areas - but facing these situations can be intimidating and they need the knowledge and confidence to be able to deal with them. Since 2009 we've helped train more than 4,000 of these front-line workers in responsible alcohol retailing and today we're delighted to be able to extend this pledge further and commit to providing 10,000 people access to the same nationally-recognised qualification by 2016."

AB InBev UK & Ireland president, Inge Plochaet, said: "Tackling alcohol misuse is a complex challenge which we believe is best done by working in partnership. We are therefore announcing our commitment to extend our support for alcohol education through our partnership with the Alcohol Education Trust, and to dedicate resources to helping tackle problem drinking in Local Alcohol Action Areas. We are also signing up to the new packaging pledge which will limit the number of units in a can to four."

* If you would like to sign up to the Responsiblity Deal or find out more about what you can do then go to the special Responsibility OK section of Harpers.co.uk in our Campaigns area.

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