Tories demand stronger punishment for underage drinkers
Conservative party calls for harsher punishment for youngsters who try to purchase alcohol when underage.
Tuesday, 12, Feb 2008 11:07
The Conservative party has called for harsher punishment for youngsters who try to purchase alcohol when underage.
Shadow home secretary David Davis will today call for the high number of people turned away for attempting to buy alcohol when underage to be matched by an equally high amount of prosecutions and court orders issued for the same offence.
According to figures obtained by the Conservatives through parliamentary questions, more than a million people are turned away from pubs on the grounds of age ever month, while one leading off-licence chain turned away more than 300,000 people for the same reason last year.
But the number of prosecutions taken against such offenders has been found to be less than 100 annually.
Court proceedings were initiated against would-be underage drinkers on just ten occasions in 2006, with 13 cautioned and 62 fixed penalty notices handed to 16- and 17-year-olds.
Mr Davis said: "Underage drinking damages young people and fuels youth crime. Ministers talk endlessly about cracking down on alcohol-related violence, but these figures show the government's staggering complacency when it comes to taking the action required.
"The government's basic failure to enforce the law sends totally the wrong message about underage drinking and puts the public at risk from the spiralling violence it generates."
Mr Davis' comments come after three youths were jailed for the murder of Garry Newlove, a father-of-three who was kicked to death in a night of "drunken aggression", according to the sentencing judge.
"Given that just one chain is recording over 25,000 refusals a month - which doesn't even begin to cover one of the very large supermarket chains - it is clear that the off trade has as big, if not a bigger, problem than the pub trade," Mr Davis told Sky News.
"If we were to assume refusals of 24 million per annum and to take 2006 as the year with the highest number of sanctions in all categories issued against youngsters for buying alcohol at 85, this would give you odds of one in 282,000 of receiving any form of sanction for trying to buy alcohol underage."