Home Office lauds alcohol sting success

Thursday, 5 August 2004 12:00 AM

The Home Office says the first month of its crackdown on alcohol related violence has been a "large scale success".

The campaign was launched at the beginning of July as a joint initiative between the Home Office and the police. Official figures suggest that alcohol fuels around 50 per cent of all violent crime and that around 70 per cent of A&E peak time admissions are due to alcohol.

According to the Government, the campaign is an attempt to "kick start" a culture change so that people will increasingly regard drunken loutishness as unacceptable.

One of the features of the summer crackdown has been the use of "sting" operations in which underage young people are sent into pubs and off-licenses to attempt to purchase alcohol. These youngsters are typically around 13 or 14.

51 per cent of on-licence premises, such as pubs, were found to sell alcohol to underage drinkers, as did 29 per cent of off-licences.

In addition, 1,869 fixed penalty notices have been issued for a range of offences, notably those of causing harassment and of being drunk and disorderly.

Home Secretary David Blunkett said: "Today's figures show that this co-ordinated police blitz up and down the country is already delivering real results in tackling underage and binge drinking and alcohol-fuelled disorder.

"We are no longer prepared to tolerate our towns and city centres becoming no-go areas on Friday and Saturday nights. We are determined to tackle the problem head-on with tough enforcement action and work with the alcohol industry to tackle irresponsible selling."

Stephen Green, a spokesperson for the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), said: "The most disturbing aspect of these figure is the level of premises selling alcohol to under-age people. The Police Service is determined to bring the full weight of the law down on licensees who act in such an irresponsible manner."

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