§ Ross CranstonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the effect of the(a) Confiscation of Alcohol (Young Persons) Act 1997 and (b) Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 on (i) under-age drinking and (ii) antisocial behaviour; and if he will make a statement. [15330]
§ Mr. Bob AinsworthThe Confiscation of Alcohol (Young Persons) Act 1997 gives the police important powers to confiscate alcohol from under-age drinkers in public places. The view of the Association of Chief Police Officers is that these powers have proved to be effective in helping the police to combat disorder and nuisance arising from alcohol consumption by young people in public places. The law was further strengthened by the Licensing (Young Persons) Act 2000, which tightened the position relating to the sale and purchase of alcohol to or on behalf of persons under 18.
The Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 includes important new provisions relating to under-age drinking. It will place a duty on retailers to take positive steps to ensure that customers are 18 or over, and it will give the police and trading standards officers the power to undertake test purchasing, using minors, to enforce the 248W law against the sale of alcohol to under 18s. We expect these provisions, which we are planning to bring into effect on 1 December 2001, to go further in restricting young people's access to alcohol, which so often leads on to antisocial behaviour.
In addition, sections 12 to 16 of the 2001 Act, which came into effect on 1 September, provide local authorities with an adoptive power to designate public places where it will become an offence to continue to drink alcohol after being warned by a police officer not to do so. This adoptive power replaces, and builds on, the model Home Office byelaw which was adopted by 113 local authorities to restrict antisocial drinking in public places.