Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the effect of changes to licensing rules on alcohol free zones.

The provisions in the Business and Planning Bill currently progressing through Parliament include measures which will make it easier for licensed premises to expand outdoors by streamlining the processes for obtaining a pavement licence and a permission to sell alcohol for consumption off the premises. The provisions will not override existing alcohol-free zones previously set by local councils.