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Written question asked by David Evennett (Conservative) on Wednesday, 4 June 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 6 June 2008. It was answered by Lord Coaker (Labour) on Thursday, 17 July 2008 on behalf of the Home Office.


Alcoholic Drinks: Young People

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were (a) cautioned, (b) prosecuted and (c) given a penalty notice for disorder for selling alcohol to people under the age of 18 years in each borough in London in each of the last five years.
Answer

The number of (a) cautions, (b) prosecutions at magistrates courts for the years 2002 to 2006 and (c) penalty notices for disorder (PNDs) for the years 2004 to 2006 for the offence of selling alcohol to people under the age of 18 years in the City of London and Metropolitan Police force areas can be viewed in the following table.We are unable to provide figures on individual London boroughs as data are not collected at this level of detail by the Ministry of Justice.

Number of cautions issued, defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts, and issued with a penalty notice for disorder for offences relating to the sale of alcohol to a person under the age of 18 years, in the Metropolitan and City of London police force areas, 2002-06¹, ², ³, 4
Cautions5 Proceeded against Penalty notices for disorder
2002 0 12 6—
2003 0 113 6—
2004 0 167 21
2005 0 253 161
2006 0 236 252
¹ Cautions and proceeded against data are on the principal offence basis. Data on PNDs are a straight count of the number issued during each year.
² Data include the following offence descriptions and corresponding statutes:
Holder of occasional permission or his agent knowingly selling to, knowingly allow consumption by or allowing any person to sell, intoxicating liquor to a person under 18. Selling etc intoxicating liquor to person under 18 for consumption on the premises.
Licensing (Occasional Permissions) Act 1983 schedule (sec 3) para 4(1). Licensing Act 1964 sec 169(1).
Sale of alcohol to person under 18.
Licensing Act 2003 s.146(1)
Wholesaler selling intoxicating liquor to a person under 18.
Licensing Act 1964 Sec 181A (1) as added by Licensing Act 1988 sec 17.
Allow sale of alcohol to an individual under 18.
Licensing Act 2003 sec 147(1) and (5)
Sell alcohol to under 18
s.169A, Licensing Act 1964
Sale of alcohol anywhere to a person under 18.
s. 146(1) of the Licensing Act 2003
³ The Licensing Act 2003 came into force on 24 November 2005.
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.
5 From 1 June 2000 the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 came into force nationally and removed the use of cautions for persons under 18 and replaced them with reprimands and final warnings. Reprimands and final warnings are included in the data.
6 There are no data for 2002 and 2003 as the PND scheme was rolled out in 2004
Source:
Court proceedings data held by RDS— Office for Criminal Justice Reform— Ministry of Justice

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
479 c597-8W;479 c595-6W; 209842
Session
2007-08
Subjects
Alcoholic drinks Young people
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk