Jersey sees 38-year happy hour ban lifted

A 38-year ban on drink promotions in Jersey has been lifted, the hospitality association has confirmed.

The Licensing Assembly removed the restrictions on drinks promotions in venues, after it said the ban had led to increased at home drinking and binge drinking.

The lift of the ban means venues are able to offer drink promotions such as happy hour and two-for-one deals.

The Jersey Hospitality Association (JHA) said it welcomed the lift on guidance.

Marcus Calvani from the JHA said he hoped lifting the ban on drinks promotions would give businesses more freedom.

He said: "So, businesses can do anything they want - it can operate in whatever capacity it wants, they still need to remain in a responsible [way] and not enticing people to drink to excess.

"As an establishment if you see somebody who's intoxicated who enters you shouldn't be serving them, if somebody becomes intoxicated on your premises you shouldn't be serving them and we hope that people are responsible and as human beings we look after one another."

Mr Calvani said he hoped the lift would encourage more people to go out.

He said: "People can come out for our community, people will socialise and we certainly hope that the industry thrives a little bit better in very challenging times.

"We hope also that everybody goes out [and] has some fun, obviously behaves responsibly, but this is positive for everyone - visitors and islanders."

The JHA said it wrote to the Attorney General at the beginning of 2024 to lift the restrictions of the law. It argued it had "caused a growing gap between on and off-trade prices" which had led to increased at home drinking and binge drinking.

Jersey landlord Simon Soar said times had changed since the restrictions were first introduced and that it may not be viable for businesses to offer too many discounts.

"We're not going to see drinks promotions like they used to be decades ago because the price of margins don't exist any more and they haven't existed for a long time.

"That, coupled with the fact people don't go out as much as they used to makes it a lot more difficult to make any form of profits in the industry."

Sustainable Economics Minister Deputy Kirsten Morel said the government wanted to support local business.

He said: "Jersey's tourism offering, one of the difficulties we have is the price of Jersey, so wherever we can make it more attractive from a price perspective it's really helpful.

"Being able to have a bit more competition in bars and restaurants is going to be part of that, but there are other areas we are looking at as well just to help make Jersey more competitive as an overall tourism offering."

Morel said the law still remained "the same" around excessive drinking.

He said: "Managers of licensed premises are not allowed to serve people who appear to be drunk and they need to maintain that.

"This will go wrong if there is suddenly drunkenness all over town in the evenings so I do ask the industry to be responsible with this."

Jo Ferbrache, who campaigns for people who do not drink alcohol, said the industry needed to make sure that there were fair deals on non-alcoholic drinks too.

"I think it's really important that they have the same promotions on the alcohol free offering too, so if they're going to do a two-for-one make sure that that's the same thing for those who aren't drinking, just to ensure that it's inclusive and fair," she said.

Cleo Leather is a recovering alcoholic and is worried that the law change could encourage people to drink too much.

She said it was important for people to decide why they were going out and who they were going with.

"I think that it's important to just be honest with yourself around the people that you're going out with and maybe the intention of why you're drinking," she said.

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