Pubs and clubs will face strict orders to tackle Britain’s booze culture when bans on happy hours and discount drinks are announced next week.

The Government is considering the introduction of cigarette-style health warnings on bottles and cans containing alcoholic drinks. Ministers also want television adverts for alcohol to carry warnings of the danger of drinking to excess.

The new regulations to deal with excessive drinking and to tackle alcohol-prompted violence and disorder are contained in a code of practice to be imposed on the drinks industry. Whitehall has recommended that the code be mandatory but a final decision has yet to be taken by the Prime Minister, The Times has learnt.

Gerry Sutcliffe, the Licensing Minister, told the Commons Culture Select Committee: “We want this to be proportionate and related to the actual harm it causes. If it is a promotion causing people to get drunk and causing problems then it is right that we should act.”

A report published in the summer showed evidence of widespread abuse of the existing voluntary code. Ministers and Whitehall officials have lost patience with attempts to persuade the drinks industry to police pubs and clubs voluntarily.

A report by the Department of Health in the summer said that ten million adults in England regularly drank more than the recommended limits set by the Government and that the cost to the NHS of alcohol misuse was more than £2.7 billion a year. It said that alcohol misuse cost £25 billion a year in policing and lost work, and that each year there were 811,000 alcohol-related admissions to hospital.

Under the new code, the rules will be enforced by local government trading standards officers and the police. They will have the power to place conditions on the issuing of licences and to remove licences where premises breach the code.

Promotions such as happy hours and free drinks until a certain time, or for particular customers, will be banned. Pubs and clubs will display unit levels around the till and offer large and small glasses for wine.

The industry is to be given until early next year to print health warnings on drink labels. If it fails to meet the deadline, the Government will bring in legislation to force it to act.

The announcement, which is likely to be criticised by the drinks industry, will not deal with supermarkets that sell beer and wine at reduced prices.

The Government’s official advisers on the misuse of drugs yesterday gave their full support for a range of actions, including linking the number of calories in a drink to those in a sausage roll and putting the comparison on the labelling.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs called for a ban on off-licences and supermarkets selling drinks at lower than cost price and suggested a reduction of alcohol content.

It said that in the past 20 years the average alcohol content of beers and lagers had risen from 3½-4 per cent to 5-5½ per cent. In a submission sent to Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, last month the council said that drink should be taxed at various levels, linked to alcohol content.

It gave warning of the “hidden problem” for older drinkers who were exposed to higher risk levels, and of excessive drinking in their homes by smokers who could no longer use pubs because of the smoking ban.

Caroline Healy, a member of the council, added that a zero drink-drive limit should be imposed on drivers under 21.

Code of practice

— Happy hours, drinking games and free drinks for women to be banned in pubs and clubs

— Cigarette-style medical advice on adverts for beer, wine and spirits

— Cans, bottles of beer and wine to carry medical advice on drinking

— Pubs and bars to offer large and small glasses for wines Code of practice expected to be mandatory

— Local councils and police will enforce rules – allowing them to impose restrictions on licences and remove licences for breaches of code

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