Police seize alcohol from underage drinkers

The Home Office has released figures showing that police seized 44,265 pints of alcohol from underage drinkers during a two-week crackdown earlier this year.

Announcing the results of the £760,000 campaign which took place in 39 police forces in England and Wales, Home Office minister Vernon Coaker said the government wanted to combine law enforcement and education to tackle underage drinking.

Officers confiscated nearly 37,000 pints of beer and cider, 1,165 litres of wine, 1,027 litres of spirits and 1,255 litres of alcopops from children during a half-term break.

Some 25 per cent of the 5,143 children who surrendered alcohol to the police were aged 15 or under.

"Confiscating alcohol is just one part of our strategy to address the damage and disruption that underage drinking causes to youngsters, their families and the communities they live in," Coaker said.

"We are working across government to combine tough enforcement of the law with effective alcohol education for children and parents and to help young people find alternative things to do.

"I know the public will welcome police action to disperse groups of threatening youths and choke their supply of alcohol.

"This campaign will not be the last."

Supply

Asked where they had obtained the alcohol, 765 said they had bought it from a shop, 50 said it had been supplied by a parent and 286 said it had been bought by a friend.

Some 253 told officers they had taken it from home, with 187 claiming a stranger had bought it for them.

However, 70 per cent said they did not know where it came from or refused to answer the question.

"I want to remind parents of their responsibility and where poor parenting is identified as an issue I want to see greater use of parenting contracts to tackle persistent underage drinking," Coaker added.

"I also want to see greater sharing of information between police and local agencies about repeat offenders to address problems as early as possible."

He added: "Police officers tell me that these campaigns yield valuable intelligence about where children get their alcohol.

"With this in mind, I want to send a strong signal once again to those persistent few irresponsible retailers that deliberately sell to under-18s.

"They will be caught and they will be punished."

Shadow home secretary David Davis said: "A two week crackdown is all very well, but Labour continue to fail to enforce alcohol laws.

"They talk tough about increasing penalties to tackle drinking in public but in the last three years not a single person has received the current maximum fine of £500 for refusing to surrender alcohol. Even those fined - nearly 80 per cent have to pay less than £50.

"Rather than one off campaigns we need concerted action over the long term to tackle binge drinking and alcohol-related disorder."