Supplementary note from the Home Office
(AL 74A)
PART 3—ALCOHOL MISUSE
POLICY BACKGROUND
Part 3 makes a number of amendments to
alcohol powers to:
— Target those businesses that sell alcohol
to young people by amending the Licensing Act 2003 so that
an offence is committed if alcohol is sold to an individual under
the age of 18 on two or more occasions within three months.
The current offence is for three or more sales within a three
month period. This sends a strong message to retailers that selling
to young people is unacceptable. (Clause 29)
— Enable police officers to confiscate
open and sealed containers of alcohol from young persons in public
places without the need to prove that they were consuming or intended
to consume alcohol in a public place. This amendment to the Confiscation
of Alcohol (Young Persons) Act 1997 Act promotes consideration
of the safety and welfare of young persons by allowing the police
to return, where appropriate, individuals in possession of alcohol
that are reasonably suspected of being under 16 to their
home or a place of safety. (Clause 30)
— Create the new offence of persistently
possessing alcohol in a public place, three times or more within
a 12 month period, to tackle the anti-social behaviour, harm
to self, crime and disorder associated with unsupervised drinking
in public by persons under the age of 18. Persons under 18 in
breach of this offence are liable to prosecution for which the
maximum punishment is a level two fine (£500). (Clause 31)
— Enable the police to issue Directions
to Leave to persons aged between 10 and 15 as well as
to those aged 16 and over. This amendment also promotes the
safety and welfare of young people by allowing the police to return,
where appropriate, individuals issued with a Direction to Leave
that are reasonably suspected of being under 16 to their
home or a place of safety. (Clause 32)
KEY ISSUES
The welfare and safety of children issued
with a Direction to Leave: Concerns have been raised about
the dangers of moving young children into unfamiliar areas. Unfortunately
young children are drinking in public and getting into trouble
and the police need effective powers, such as Directions to Leave,
to deal with these problems. We agree though that the child's
welfare should be paramount and so clause 32 allows the police
to take a child who they reasonably suspect to be under 16 home
or to a place of safety if they have been issued with a Direction
to Leave.
Criminalising young people: It has been
suggested that Clause 31 unnecessarily criminalises young
people. We agree that we should avoid criminalising young people
where possible and so this new offence requires that young people
are caught possessing alcohol in public without a reasonable excuse
three times within a 12-month period. This new offence is necessary
to deal with that small minority of young people who are regularly
caught drinking in public and who are not deterred by simply having
their alcohol confiscated. These people create significant problems
for our communities and the police need to be able to deal with
them effectively. The majority of young people who are not persistently
drinking in public and who are caught once or twice will rightly
not be criminalised and instead they will have the opportunity
to benefit from non-criminal interventions, such as Acceptable
Behaviour Contracts, to try and nip their drinking in the bud.
Concerns about the disproportionate use of Directions
to Leave: The government has listened to concerns about the potential
for this power to be used disproportionately but we believe that
Directions to Leave are an important tool in preventing alcohol
related crime and disorder. We believe that the existing safeguards
strike the right balance between protecting the individual's rights
and effectively tackling these problems, and are compatible with
the European Court of Human Rights. The Home Office has issued
clear guidance to the police on the use of this power which will
be updated in light of Clause 32.
ALCOHOL—AMENDMENTS TO THE LICENSING
ACT 2003
POLICY BACKGROUND
— Schedule 4 establishes the framework
to allow the Secretary of State, by order, to introduce up to
nine mandatory licensing conditions that could apply to all premises
and club premises licensed to sell or supply alcohol, although
some exemptions may be made. These conditions will tackle the
most irresponsible practices and promotions which encourage people
to drink excessively and can often lead to crime and disorder.
— Between May and August, the Home Office
ran a public consultation on the content of these conditions,
which proposed five mandatory conditions including restrictions
on "all you can drink" offers, "women drink free"
nights and "dentists chairs". Over 7,000 responses
were received and these are currently being considered. We aim
to publish the results and our response around the New Year.
— The Bill also includes a new clause which
will give members of licensing authorities the power to act as
'interested parties' which, in particular, will allow them to
make representations as to the effect of granting a premises licence
or to call for a review of an existing licence. This will give
licensing authorities the powers that they and the Local Government
Association have been asking for to allow them to take action
pro-actively against irresponsible premises without having to
wait for the police or others to complain.
KEY ISSUES
Costs to businesses
We recognise that there are concerns about the
costs to business of introducing this new code but in doing so
we want to ensure that the majority of businesses who do sell
alcohol responsibly do not incur any significant costs, particularly
in this difficult economic climate. This Bill limits the number
of mandatory conditions to nine to ensure that they will be restricted
to only tackling the most irresponsible practices and promotions.
The majority of responsible premises do not operate these types
of practices and so should face no cost from complying with these
conditions.
Throughout the public consultation we asked
respondents to supply evidence as to the likely cost of the proposed
conditions and this will be fully considered before any final
decisions about the content of the code are made.
Minimum pricing
The Government shares concerns about the impact
of cheap alcohol. However, the current evidence on minimum unit
pricing is inconclusive and the Sheffield review suggested that
it would have minimal impact on reducing crime and disorder. We
therefore need to do further research before we could take any
action on price to ensure that it would be effective without unfairly
penalising the majority of adults in this country who do drink
responsibly.
In the public consultation on the code, we sought
views on a number of options for dealing with cheap alcohol, including
restricting irresponsible promotions, bulk-buy discounts and banning
below cost selling. Over 7,000 responses were received and
these are still being considered.
November 2009
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