Tough stance against under-age drinking

February 6, 2008: The Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has announced tough police powers to prevent underage drinking, and called for more involvement by parents and the alcohol industry to deal with the problem of teenage alcohol abuse.

Speaking to an audience of police, local authority licensing officers and representatives from the alcohol and retail industries, she described a package of new measures designed to address alcohol-related crime and anti-social behaviour among young people.

Among these are:

l a crackdown by police on underage drinkers consuming alcohol in public places
l extra powers for police to confiscate alcohol

l wider use of parenting contracts to get parents involved in helping their children deal with drinking addictions

l a new public information campaign directed at binge drinkers

l an independent review of how well industry standards are being met when it comes to responsible sales of alcohol

Mrs Smith emphasised that a lot of good work was already being done to address the problem of binge drinking, but there was more still to do.

"Police must have all the powers they need to make groups of young people drinking in public a thing of the past," she said. "A new campaign to confiscate alcohol from underage drinkers begins this month, and lessons will be learned from it.

"At the same time, we will continue to punish those few irresponsible retailers who flout the law by persistently selling to children."