ACS

The Liberal Democrats have said that they would introduce a one strike and you’re out’ penalty for those who sell alcohol to children.

The measure forms part of their outline proposals for tackling youth crime, revealed yesterday.

The document states “The legal powers to tackle irresponsible drinking amongst teenagers already exist. Labour’s talk of ‘crackdowns’ and ‘new powers’ is just an effort to chase headlines.” They call for those powers to be enforced properly and say that local people must be empowered to fight the problems relating to alcohol and young people in their area.

A Lib Dem government would ensure that any premises that sell alcohol to anyone underage would immediately have their licences reviewed. However this is qualified by stating that the licence would be removed if they are shown to have failed to demonstrate due diligence in the sale of alcohol. The proposal is that retailers would have their licence revoked at the first offence and they would be fined. The strategy justifies this by citing recent Home Office figures (Nov 2007) that revealed that of 2,683 premises targeted, children were able to buy alcohol at 40% of premises at their first attempt.

Further measures proposed include giving local councils more power to set conditions on licences and ensuring they are enforced; empowering local councils to levy taxes on businesses which cause anti-social behaviour, with the money raised being used for activities to divert children away from crime and anti-social behaviour; and encouraging councils to share good practice on successful approaches to alcohol related disorder and licensing policy.

ACS Chief Executive James Lowman said: "One strike and you're out is a tough sound bite, but is it really sensible to take away a businesses livelihood if they make one mistake. We accept strict controls and tough sanctions, however this is a step too far. These proposals are made as part of a youth crime strategy that explains at length the negative downsides of taking too draconian an approach to the sentencing of young people, it seems therefore a double standard to take such a unilateral approach to retailers.

"We will be seeking to discuss these plans with the Lib Dems and encouraging them to take a more considered and comprehensive approach to changing attitudes to drinking amongst young people."