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Home Office

Answer

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made in tackling alcohol-related violence and disorder. [201522] Ms Blears: [holding answer 2 December 2004]: The Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England was published on 15 March 2004 and contains a number of recommendations for, among other things, tackling alcohol-related crime and disorder. In implementing one of the Strategy's key recommendations, the Home Office's Police Standards Unit and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) led an Alcohol Misuse Enforcement Campaign (AMEC) over the summer from 8 July to 31 August. 92 Basic Command Units representing 39 police forces in England and Wales and 46 Trading Standards departments participated in the campaign. Results from the campaign show that over 30,000 visits to licensed premises were conducted leading to over 1,200 offences being detected. Around 1,800 Test Purchase operations were conducted with over a third resulting in an offence being committed. Over 4,000 fixed penalty notices were issued and over 9,500 alcoholic containers were confiscated with more than one-third of these being confiscated from children. Prior to the start of the AMEC, the Home Office published "Violent Crime--Tackling Violent Crime in the Night-Time Economy--Guidelines and Tactical Options". The document set out a selection of successful initiatives that were readily transferable to police forces, Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) and local partners in helping to tackle alcohol-related violence and disorder. Following the campaign, a "Lessons Learned" document was published and launched at a joint Home Office and ACPO conference on 8 November. The document is intended to assist those who are responsible for the continued drive to tackle alcohol misuse and its associated harms in relation to crime and disorder. A second campaign will take place over the Christmas period from 17 December to 3 January 2005. The Government and the police are building on existing good crime-cutting work and developing best practice in the local areas and CDRPs that still have a high volume of violent crime. This strategy will develop further the work begun by the Government and police over the summer to tackle alcohol-related disorder. In addition, the Government have introduced new fixed penalty notice offences for selling alcohol to a person under 18, the purchase of alcohol for a person under 18 on licensed premises, consumption of alcohol by a person under 18, and allowing delivery of alcohol to a person under 18. These offences came into effect on 1 November. Local authorities have also introduced around 120 Designated Public Places Orders to help tackle anti-social drinking.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

428 c623-4W; 201522

Session

2004-05

Subjects

Crime Alcoholic drinks Crimes of violence Anti-social behaviour Misuse Retail trade Violence

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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