ACS

The Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) have announced their Evaluation of the impact of the Licensing Act 2003. It stated that “overall, crime and alcohol consumption are down. But alcohol-related violence has increased in the early hours of the morning and some communities have seen a rise in disorder.”

The DCMS minister, Andy Burnham, continued on to state that “Our main conclusion is that people are using the freedoms but they are not sufficiently using the considerable powers granted by the Act to tackle problems, and there is a need to rebalance action towards enforcement and crack down on irresponsible behaviour.”

DCMS will introduce new laws to tackle premises that are selling alcohol to underage drinkers in the hope that this will tackle some of the anti-social effects of alcohol.
They will include;
• Utilising powers to identify problem premises, which will make it easier to review premises where local intelligence suggests there is a problem.
• Encourage tougher sanctions on those found to be breaching their licensing conditions. This includes the stipulation that there be far more instant closures of pubs and clubs in an area where there has been a disorder and indefinite closure by the courts for any breach of license conditions.
• The offence of “persistently selling alcohol to a person under 18” will be changed from three strikes in three months to two strikes in three months. This means that any retailer who twice sells to under age drinkers and is caught doing so will immediately lose their licence.
• The Government will support the police and local authorities to identify problem hotspots on the basis of the risks they present to crime and disorder, public nuisance and children. This will allow licensing authorities the ability to exercise more caution and conditions when issuing licenses.
• A new “yellow card and red card” alert system will be introduced. A yellow card will put the problem premises on immediate probation together with tough and uncompromising sanctions. And when the circumstances are right, it will be a straight red card leading to withdrawal of the licence.

It was stated that whilst public health was not an objective under the Licensing Act it is however a priority for Government to tackle alcohol related public health harms. In response to this the government will be reviewing the existing powers on the pricing and promotions of alcohol it links to problem drinking.

The announcement also focussed on tackling wider anti-social behaviour associated with alcohol consumption. Legislation will be brought forward to:
• Increase the maximum fine for anyone not obeying an instruction to stop drinking, or to give up their drink in a designated public place from £500 to £2,500;
• Make it easier for the police to disperse anti-social drinkers – both adults and children –from any location – if necessary, the law will be changed to make this happen;
• Extend the use of Acceptable Behaviour Contracts for young people caught drinking in public, to require them and their parents to attend a session with a trained worker;
• In addition, the government will be extending the alcohol arrest referral pilots so that under 18s may also benefit from a brief intervention from a trained worker. This will help deal with young people drinking in public who are already involved in criminal activities.

For further information or to download the full review please visit www.dcms.gov.uk