Clause 2 - Orders on an application to magistrates' court
Violent Crime Reduction Bill
Public Bill Committees, 18 October 2005, 12:45 pm
Lynne Featherstone (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Hornsey & Wood Green, Liberal Democrat)
I shall comment on the amendments tabled by the hon. Member for Woking, but I have also tabled amendments Nos. 121, 125 and 126.
The hon. Member for Woking highlighted an important issue that the Bill does not cover, which is under-age drinking—including very under-age drinking. I have children of the relevant age, and when there is a weekend party, although my children profess to have nothing to do with it, they give horrific descriptions of the condition of their associates, or the friends in their class. Blind drunk is too kind a term. Where they get hold of the alcohol I do not know. Nevertheless, they get hold of it with no apparent problem, and appear to think that it is fashionable to drink until they are so sick they cannot function. The hon. Member for Woking has identified an interesting and important matter. I am not sure that I would choose ASBOs as a route for dealing with it, but it is important.
The Minister said that an exercise revealed that about 40 per cent. of public houses sold drinks to under-age children. I do not know how young those illegal purchasers were, and we did not hear about follow-up in the form of prosecutions against the establishments concerned.