Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:12 pm on 12 June 2018.
Thank you, Llywydd. This amendment is one that has been designed to tackle an issue of concern in relation to implementing such an Act in Wales, and it's also an issue that was something of an obstacle in terms of similar legislation in the Scottish Parliament. Strangely enough, it is an obstacle that led to Labour ultimately voting against the legislation. I am talking of the likelihood that there would be additional profit that could be made by retailers as a result of introducing this legislation. Now, this is not something that we would wish to see taking place. I will refer back to what I said at the outset, which is that it is through taxation that we would really wish to seek a way to use pricing as a tool against excessive consumption of alcohol. If taxation was used, the public purse would benefit from legislation that would vary the price.
Of course, in this context, we are not bringing money into the Welsh Treasury—that is not the intent—rather it is to set a policy in place as a public health tool, and, in truth, it is not about dealing with the financial question that arises at the root of what we are doing. Again, these limitations on our powers as a Parliament are at play here. We have thought and scratched our heads in considering many ways that we could ensure that the retailers that will make more profit by having to sell alcohol at a higher price—that that money could somehow be collected and, ideally, could possibly be distributed in a way that would be targeted at assisting the treating of problem drinking and alcoholism and so forth. Now, with the limitations on our legislative competence here, we haven't been able to find a way forward. Scottish Labour, because they were unhappy with seeing retailers making more profit, did vote against the legislation, but that is Scotland.
So, having failed to be able to think of a model that would work, what we have done through this amendment is try to make the legislation more fit for the future, in the hope, in all seriousness, that we will have the powers to act in the future that we do not currently enjoy, in order to ensure that, when this legislation is reconsidered in the future, and is renewed under the sunset clause, Welsh Ministers will take steps, or at least will consider steps at that point, to stop profiting from the sale of alcohol. As I say, we would like to do that now, but we cannot, but by supporting this amendment, we can ensure at least that consideration is given to this issue again when the opportunity comes before us at the sunset point.