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Alcoholic Drinks: Young People

Answer

Information on the court proceedings database cannot be broken down by constituency or district level, therefore information has been provided by police force area.The number of defendants proceeded against in Northumbria police force area, the North East Region, and England and Wales for the sale of alcohol to persons under the age of 18 years from 1997 to 2006 can be viewed in the following table.

Number of defendants proceeded against in magistrates courts for the sale of alcohol to persons under the age of 18 years in Northumbria police force area, the North East Region, and England and Wales for the years 1997 to 2006¹, ², ³, 4
	Proceeded against
Force/region/area	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Northumbria	34	92	41	17	17	8	38	51	79	41
North East	34	94	41	18	18	9	42	63	95	52
England and Wales	215	311	205	132	158	170	616	861	1,084	1,199
¹ These data are on the principal offence basis.
² Data includes the following offence descriptions and corresponding statutes:
Holder of occasional permission or agent knowingly selling intoxicating liquor to person under 18
Licensing (Occasional Permissions) Act 1983 S.4(1)(a), Licensing Act S.169A and 169B, as added by Licensing (Young Persons) Act 2000 S.1
Wholesaler selling intoxicating liquor to a person under 18
Licensing Act 1964 S.181 A(1) as added by Licensing Act 1988 S.17.
Sale of alcohol to a person under 18
Licensing Act 2003 S.146(1)
Allow sale of alcohol to an individual under 18
Licensing Act 2003 S.147(1) and (5).
³ Staffordshire police force were only able to supply a 9 per cent. sample of data for magistrates courts proceedings covering one full week in each quarter for 2000. Although sufficient to estimate higher orders of data, these data are not robust at a detailed level and are not included in the England and Wales figures.
4 Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts, other agencies and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.
Source:
Court proceedings data held by RDS, Office for Criminal Justice Reform, Ministry of Justice.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

476 c868W;476 c866W; 195326

Session

2007-08

Subjects

Alcoholic drinks Young people

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk