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Mrs. Spelman: On that basis, those figures may well be an underestimate. Those statistics are contained in a fact sheet produced by the Institute of Alcohol Studies, which was based on Home Office data.
Sir Patrick Cormack: Do those statistics show what an influence the sale of alcopops has had on the increased consumption of alcohol, as the hon. Member for Pudsey (Mr. Truswell) argued in an admirable speech? As I understand it, the purchase of alcopops was the occasion of the first visit to the off-licence by the young man concerned. Therefore, I should be grateful if my hon. Friend would let me know whether that is the case.
Mrs. Spelman: This statistical series does not give a breakdown of different types of alcohol; it concerns the incidence of consumption of alcohol. However, Alcohol Concern has found not only that the types of alcohol most commonly consumed among under-age drinkers are beer, lager or ciders, which account for 57 per cent. of alcohol consumption among under-age drinkers, but that the number of alcopoppers is rising. I know that hon. Members who were in this place before me expressed their considerable concern at the time of the advent on to the market of alcopops, which are specifically targeted at young people and have certainly contributed to the rising incidence of alcohol consumption among those who are under age.
There is an increase not only in the number of under-age young people who consume alcohol but--a matter of equal concern--in the volume of alcohol that they consume. Between 1990 and 1996, units of alcohol consumed per week increased from six to almost 10 among boys and from 4.8 to seven among girls--a comparable trend but at a lower level. At the extreme end of the scale of 14 and 15-year-olds, 5 per cent. are already consuming volumes of alcohol in excess of the maximum recommended adult levels of alcohol consumption. Those levels are, as every hon. Member would know, 14 units a week for women, such as myself, and 21 units a week for the gentlemen of the House. Ten per cent. of 15 and 16-year-olds are consuming alcohol in excess of the maximum recommended for an adult.
That increase, not only in the number of young people drinking but in the volume that they drink, reaches its most extreme expression in hospital casualty units which, increasingly, encounter cases of young children suffering the effects of extreme alcohol intoxication.
Mr. Swayne:
Will my hon. Friend assist me? She spoke of units and, although I once had at least some grasp of what they amounted to, I am afraid that I cannot recall what volume of alcohol they represent in measures that we can understand.
Mrs. Spelman:
The easiest way for my hon. Friend to grasp the concept is to remember, the next time he uncorks a bottle of wine and fills a glass, that that is a unit. I hope that will help him. I have a lesser interest in other forms of alcohol, so he will have to consult the tables that outline what the beer in his tankard represents in units of alcohol.
Reports from Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool show that children as young as eight have been admitted with acute alcohol poisoning. That is an important aspect of the debate on what we can do about under-age drinking.
We must consider the motives of the youngsters and we should not shy away from the reasons that they give for drinking alcohol. The obvious ones are that they wish to be seen to be cool, grown-up and moving with the pack. They say that they are looking for a buzz or a quick high from getting drunk. Those are the same motives for taking illicit drugs.
To act on their motives, young people need two fundamental ingredients: the money to buy the alcohol and someone willing to sell it. The willingness to sell it is the subject of the Bill, but I want to dwell for a moment on the first of the two ingredients--the money to buy alcohol. I wish to register an important point that was impressed on me by my local police. More often than not, the money comes from parents, although they may be unaware that the money that was given to a child in good faith to go to the local sports centre is being used to purchase alcohol on a Saturday afternoon.
Perhaps parents are ignorant of how the pocket money or the money that they give their children for various activities is spent. However, a certain relaxed attitude is giving rise to more problems in relation to the way in which young people conduct themselves in society. Only last month, I was called out to a town centre by the owner of a Cantonese takeaway who had experienced many problems from gangs of youngsters. They had been climbing on the roof of his premises and so on. The gang was rounded up and most of its members were under 18. Most of the boys were 16 and 17-year-olds, but with them at 10 o'clock at night was a 14-year-old girl.
When that young lady was taken home--I hasten to add that drinking alcohol was among the antics that had gone on in the town centre--her parents showed no real concern about the fact that their daughter had been out with 16 and 17-year-old lads in the town centre, consuming alcohol after 10 o'clock at night. There is an underlying problem here: if parents take too relaxed an attitude to what their children are up to at that time of night, what they consume and what they use their money for, tragic incidents occur. Such incidents are the very reason for this debate.
Sir Patrick Cormack:
I want it to be understood that I cast absolutely no aspersions on the parents of the young
Mrs. Spelman:
That is a fundamental aspect of the debate. I shall come on to the position in which the vendor of the alcohol is placed. However, we should not move too quickly off the subject of parental responsibility. Policemen and women find it difficult to patrol our streets safely and, as they have put it forcefully to me, they have limited financial resources. Is it right that they should spend their time returning 14-year-olds who have been consuming alcohol in the company of significantly older young men home at 10 o'clock at night? Is that the right priority for the police, or should they devote their attention to preventing car crime, burglaries and other criminal offences?
Mr. Boswell:
My hon. Friend is making a constructive speech. Does she agree that the behaviour of young people often interacts with the type of criminal activity to which she referred? Young people may get tanked up and take a car and that can result in tragic accidents such as the fatality that happened near my home when five young people went into a canal, or other public order offences. Such problems go much wider than a night out and a hangover afterwards.
Mrs. Spelman:
My hon. Friend makes a good point. He has reminded me to point out that the money needed to buy alcohol is not always acquired from the parents who give their children money in good faith for other purposes. As with illicit drug consumption, drinking alcohol can lead to a habit in which criminal activity is part of the life style. Money has to be sought by other means to feed the habit. My hon. Friend's points were very well made.
My constituency has a black spot of under-age drinking. It is well known by the community, it is visible and it is in a public place. A supermarket on a housing estate is a veritable Mecca for under-age drinkers and it has proved very difficult to crack the problem. Youngsters congregate outside the off-licence in the car park, and there is evidence of drinking all around. There are beer cans under the shrubberies and bottles--both smashed and intact--all over one end of the car park.
It is unfortunate for local residents and users of the supermarket that it is situated next door to the community surgery. The consequence of under-age drinkers being in close proximity to the surgery is that it has been vandalised and there is much graffiti on the walls. The overall effect on the environment is negative. That is a public nuisance for those who live close to the off-licence. Many elderly people live in ground-floor flats that overlook the car park and, unfortunately, they are regularly forced to witness through their windows the type of anti-social behaviour that often follows drinking.
The police have faced real difficulties in resolving the problem and they relate to the key reasons for the Bill. They find it difficult to catch someone in the act of selling alcohol to an under-age drinker. There is another feature to the problem. It is established practice for someone of the correct age to purchase the alcohol and pass it on to
younger drinkers. That point is not covered by the Bill, but I remind the House that, in 1997, the Government made a commitment to introduce legislation making it an offence for someone of age to purchase alcohol with the purpose of passing it on to an under-age drinker. I urge the Government to get a move on with that commitment.
Mr. Tony Clarke (Northampton, South):
There is confusion in the Bill, particularly in respect of the proposed new section 169F on the delivery of alcohol and that on the purchase and provision of alcohol to individuals. The hon. Lady said that the practice that she has just described was not covered by the Bill, so what does she think needs to be done to close that loophole?
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