Section 12 of the Act empowers the Minister for Health to make Regulations on the labelling of alcohol products and provides that labels on alcohol products will contain:
- A warning to inform people of the danger of alcohol consumption.
- A warning to inform people of the danger of alcohol consumption when pregnant.
- A warning to inform people of the direct link between alcohol and fatal cancers.
- The quantity of grams of alcohol contained in the product.
- The number of calories contained in the alcohol product.
- A link to the HSE website which gives information on alcohol and related harms.
As well as the labels on alcohol products themselves, those selling alcohol, whether in pubs or in off-licences, will be required to display a notice containing the same health warnings, the link to the public health website, and indicating to the customer that the alcohol and calorie content of alcohol products is on the products themselves or, for all ’poured drinks’, can be found in a document, which must be made available upon request. Similar requirements will apply to those selling alcohol products online.
Drafting of the Regulations which will set out the detailed requirements in relation to the labelling of alcohol products has been interrupted in my Department and in the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel by COVID-19 related work but will be resumed as soon as possible.
Following finalisation of the draft Regulations by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel they will be submitted to the European Commission for it to assess whether they are in alignment with Single Market principles.
Subject to the consequences of the assessment by the Commission there will then be a three-year lead-in time after the Regulations are made in order to give businesses time to prepare for and to make the necessary changes to comply with the new requirements.
