DAVID BLUNKETT is writing to more than 650 bars, shops and off-licences after they were caught repeatedly selling alcohol to under-18s.
The Home Secretary is also calling on magistrates to increase fines for any licensees who break the law, after a three-month summer blitz in 92 city and town centres aimed at ending binge-drinking and drunken violence by young people.
Police and licensing authorities mounted sting operations on 1,825 premises and 51 per cent were found selling drink to under-18s in at least two tests. They included 191 bars or pubs and 466, or 32 per cent, of off-licence outlets tested. Officers also arrested 5,764 people, gave on-the-spot £40 fines to more than 4,000 rowdy drinkers and confiscated alcohol from more than 9,500 adults and juveniles.
Mr Blunkett said: “I recognise that good work is being done by many in the industry but there is no point for policies to be in place to deal with sales of alcohol to minors if they are not implemented.
“That is why I will be writing to the chief executives of the off-licences and drinking establishments that have repeatedly sold alcohol illegally to find out what positive action will be taken to address this.”
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Mr Blunkett said that he would ask the Sentencing Guidelines Council to look at whether “being drunk” should be changed to an aggravating rather than a mitigating factor in antisocial offences. The panel, which advises the courts on sentencing, will also look at whether the full range of fines are being used against establishments prosecuted for selling alcohol illegally.
The Home Secretary said that it was difficult to persuade communities that alcohol problems were being addressed when “fine levels for alcohol-related prosecutions within the industry are often very low and when people committing antisocial offences can use the excuse of ‘drunkenness’ to get a shorter sentence”.
He said that fixed-penalty notices to target people involved in selling or buying alcohol for under-18s will come into force in November and that the summer campaign will be continued at regular intervals. Hazel Blears, a Home Office minister, said that cheap drink promotions remained a “recipe for disaster” which fuelled street violence. She said that the industry had to prove quickly that it could deal with the situation itself or face further action. She said that drinkers should also be more responsible.
Jean Coussins, chief executive of the Portman Group, an industry body which promotes responsible drinking, said: “We’re pleased to see tough action being taken by police against drunks who commit public order offences, and against unscrupulous adults who buy alcohol for under-18s on the streets. And we have always argued for tough action to be taken against any retailers who knowingly and persistently serve underage drinkers.”
David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: “It is going to take more than an eight-week summer blitz to reverse the growing trend of our major towns and cities becoming no-go areas at the weekend. This Government has tried to tackle problems surrounding alcohol and crime and failed every time.”
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He accused the Government of being hypocritical, saying: “While they talk tough about a summer blitz on binge drinking, David Blunkett is planning to let pubs open 24 hours a day.”