The Alcoholic Beverages (Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2023

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations make amendments to retained EU law in relation to the labelling of alcoholic beverages and wine products marketed in Wales. These Regulations amend the following retained EU law—

(a) Annex 12 to Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the provision of food information to consumers (EUR 2011/1169) (“Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011”), and

(b) Articles 44 and 50(1) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/33 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards applications for protection of designations of origin, geographical indications and traditional terms in the wine sector, the objection procedure, restrictions of use, amendments to product specifications, cancellation of protection, and labelling and presentation (EUR 2019/33) (“Regulation (EU) 2019/33”).

Regulation 2 amends Annex 12 to Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 to enable an alternative indicator (“% alc/vol”) to be used (instead of one of the other specified indicators) with a figure indicating the actual alcoholic strength of a beverage to which that Annex applies.

Regulation 3(2) amends Article 44 of Regulation (EU) 2019/33—

(a) to require the actual alcoholic strength of wine and certain other wine sector products to be indicated to a figure of not more than one decimal point (instead of a requirement that the indication be given in percentage units or half units);

(b) to enable an alternative indicator (“% alc/vol”) to be used (instead of one of the other specified indicators) with a figure indicating the actual alcoholic strength of wine and certain other wine sector products to which Article 44 applies.

Regulation 3(3) amends Article 50(1) Regulation (EU) 2019/33 to enable wine and certain other wine sector products on the labels of which two or more wine grape varieties (or their synonyms) are named to be marketed in Wales where 95% of the product (reduced from 100%) has been made from those varieties. This is subject to compliance with existing labelling requirements relating to the naming of those varieties in Article 50(1).

The Welsh Ministers’ code of practice on the carrying out of regulatory impact assessments was considered in relation to these Regulations. As a result, it was not considered necessary to carry out a regulatory impact assessment as to the likely costs and benefits of complying with these Regulations.