House of Commons Hansard Debates for 24 Jan 1997 (pt 6)

11.2 am

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Timothy Kirkhope): I am grateful--all of us should be--to my hon. Friend the Member for Castle Point (Dr. Spink) for introducing the Bill. Like others, I congratulate him very much on an excellent Second Reading speech. Like him, I believe that the Bill can make a real difference to many people's quality of life.

The House is not known by the public for its aversion to alcoholic beverages. Although many hon. Members who are present--including, by his own admission, my hon. Friend the Member for Castle Point--may on occasion call into the Smoking Room for a small refreshment to help them unwind after a particularly stressful day, I think that the whole House shares my aversion to the spectacle of groups of teenagers involved in a heavy drinking session in a bus shelter or park or on a shopping parade.

Sadly, such drinking has become a problem in many of our towns and cities, including my city of Leeds and, indeed, my constituency of Leeds, North-East, where shopkeepers and members of the public have been irritated and caused deep concern by such activities on shopping parades. The problem certainly does not exist only in Essex; as my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham (Mr. Atkinson) has reminded us, it occurs throughout the country.

There is a loophole in the law. The Licensing Act 1964 prohibits young people under the age of 18 from purchasing alcohol on licensed premises and prohibits adults from buying alcohol to give to young people to drink on licensed premises, but it does not prohibit young people from consuming alcohol in any place other than licensed premises. Although the police take enforcement of the legislation very seriously, what they can do if they see young people knocking back lager, cider or even stronger drinks in a public place is none the less very restricted, because the young people and any adults with them are not committing an offence.

The Government take their responsibilities on alcohol very seriously. I remind the House that their health policy on drinking is clearly set out in the "Sensible Drinking Report", which was published in December 1995. That said that young people need to be aware of the specific risks of excessive drinking that relate to their life style and of the need to minimise such risks to prevent harm to themselves and others. The Department of Health has also produced health education materials.

Some local initiatives have already been introduced to combat under-age drinking. My hon. Friend the Member for Castle Point mentioned the one that was started by police in Weymouth, which was a response to the problem of under-age drinking in public areas. It involved videoing children drinking alcohol and taking them back to their parents, who were shown the video. The initiative has received considerable media coverage in local papers and

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on television, and encourages parents to take responsibility for their children. I echo the remarks of some of my hon. Friends in saying that parental responsibility is of course the key to anything concerning young people. It is sad that not enough parents are obliged to take responsibility for the actions of their children.

Mr. Ian Bruce: My hon. Friend has kindly referred to my constituency and the excellent work done by the police in the "Do you know where your children are?" campaign, which arose to a certain extent as a result of an earlier ground-breaking scheme in Weymouth. Everybody knows that the area leads the way in such crime control measures. A group of concerned Christian adults set up a night bus, where children could be sheltered, especially if they were feeling the worse for alcohol. Such concern about people drinking alcohol in public drew the matter to the attention of the police. The Bill will take the initiative we need to solve the problem.

Mr. Kirkhope: Indeed. My hon. Friend and I had a dialogue about the success of the schemes in Dorset. I very much commend them and agree that they are an example of how local initiatives can succeed in helping young people. The police believe that the initiative in Weymouth has been very beneficial to prevention of under-age drinking. Indeed, the campaign proved such a success that, as my hon. Friend will know, the police decided to tackle all the other problems relating to youths in the same way, and with the assistance of voluntary agencies.

The Confiscation of Alcohol (Young Persons) Bill provides a quick, on-the-spot solution. Once enacted, it will be available to an officer throughout England and Wales. Any officer who is concerned by a group of youngsters who are drinking will be able to act immediately to solve the problem. It is important to remember that, although the occasional glass of cider or wine may do youngsters no harm, if taken as part of a family celebration such as a wedding or birthday or at Christmas, regular drinking by young people poses a real threat to their health and could lead to dependence on alcohol in years to come.

Equally seriously, regular drinking can lead young people to become involved in crime. The police are able to point to the fact that many offences are committed when under the influence of alcohol. Young people when drunk can do things that they may deeply regret. They can be tempted to inflict criminal damage; many fights are alcohol-related; and if youngsters are tempted to take a car, they can be a grave danger to themselves and others.

Apart from the danger that young people might be drawn to crime, many members of the public find the sight of youngsters who are the worse for drink very disturbing. Such youngsters can be loud, loutish and offensive. They may be all those things without realising that they are causing offence. If nothing happens when youngsters behave in that way, it can add to the impression that the police are not in control, and that can increase the general fear of crime. The public may, not unreasonably, fear that, if the police are unable to control drunken youngsters, they may not be able to take action against real offenders.

Before the Bill was introduced, a consultation exercise was undertaken. As my hon. Friend the Member for Castle Point mentioned, we wrote to many members of

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the licensed trade, many interest groups and the police associations. In case there is any doubt, I wish to make it plain that my hon. Friend has full support for his measure from representatives of all police interests, including the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Police Superintendents Association and the Police Federation. Some concerns were expressed, of course, by some respondents, but the results were overwhelmingly favourable.

For instance, the British Retail Consortium said that it supported the proposals and that

"This action in itself could help to dissuade some youngsters from breaking the law in attempting to buy alcoholic drinks."

Alcohol Concern supported the proposals and said:

"We share the Home Office's view that additional steps are needed to meet concerns about young people's drinking and that it is preferable for the police to be in a position to take action before any damage occurs rather than once the law has been broken . . . Alcohol Concern supports the proposals to give the police discretion to take alcohol away from under 18s drinking in public."

The British Medical Association also supported the measures and said:

"We would support confiscation of alcohol as a measure to prevent underage drinking. It seems sensible that this will be implemented as a discretionary power . . . to avoid an additional burden on the courts."