Clause 27
Policing and Crime Bill
9:15 am
Alan Campbell (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Tynemouth, Labour)
This is about tightening the current system. As the hon. Member for Hornchurch says, there is a system of escalation, but the purpose of the clause is to escalate that system more quickly where premises are persistently selling alcohol to under-age children. That is something that the Local Government Association and the police have welcomed. It goes back to a theme that we have already touched on in this section of the Bill, which is not only about giving powers to the police and the trading standards authority but giving police officers the flexibility to decide on the most appropriate approach in different circumstances. If a shop is not heeding warnings and test purchasing operations, and not learning from them, we want to make it easier to escalate the response more quickly, which is why we are reducing the offence from three strikes in three months to two strikes in three months.
The hon. Gentleman made a point about earlier legislation and in response I would say that the situation is always moving on. This particular offence was introduced after the review of the Licensing Act that took place in March 2008. That review said a number of things about licensing and it reaffirmed the need to crack down on under-age sales. It also said that there was still a problem in some areas and in some communities. If we are to send out the strongest possible signal that selling alcohol to children under 18 will not be tolerated, this is an appropriate way to do it.
We also carried out a tackling under-age sales of alcohol campaign that demonstrated that those were the worst areas, although I accept the point made in the oral evidence sessions. Nevertheless, I envisage the legislation being enacted in those worst areas, and it is in those problem areas that we need to send the strongest and swiftest message. The message that came out of the tackling under-age sales of alcohol campaign was that despite test purchasing and warnings, and police and trading standards activity, some premises continued to sell alcohol to under-age children. Not only is that wrong in itself but it can lead to alcohol-related disorder in a particular area.
The hon. Gentleman talked about the toolkit and the guidance in it. The toolkit does not caution against the use of prosecution, but it shows that targeted test purchasing enforcement, and a co-operative approach between the police and the trading standards and licensing authorities, can be effective in tackling under-age sales. We listened very carefully to the experiences of the trading standards authority and the police, who broadly support what we are doing.