LONDON - The Children's secretary Ed Balls, a key ally of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, is poised call for a 9pm watershed for drinks advertising this weekend.
The move will be seen as the strongest indication yet that the Government intends to push through the restrictive measure.
Balls is understood to have been influenced by a report by Alcohol Concern that claims there is a spike in alcohol ads between 3pm and 5pm. According to insiders, he has briefed national Sunday newspaper political editors in a bid to get maximum coverage of his views on the subject. A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families, denied that this was the case.
The drinks industry has maintained that a 9pm watershed is an unnecessary measure as the scheduling rules around already prevents them appearing during or around children's programmes. They cannot be shown at other times if the percentage of child viewers rises to 20% above the proportion of children in the general population.
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