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Parents face £1,000 fines for giving children drink
By Nicholas Cecil Last updated at 11:20am on 07.02.08
Parental support: Jacqui Smith
Parents will face fines of up to £1,000 for giving their children alcohol.
They could also be sent on residential courses to be taught how they are harming their children by giving them beer, wine and spirits.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith today announced plans for parenting contracts and orders to be used against parents whose drunken children, aged under 18, behave anti-socially.
"If a young person is being picked up night after night for drinking, there's clearly a problem with their parents as well," she said. "Those parents need support ... but they need to be expected to take that support." As part of moves to tackle Britain's binge-drinking culture, police, town halls or youth-offendingteams will be able to ask adults to sign voluntary parenting contracts demanding that they stop supplying their children with alcoholic drinks.
If the contract is breached, the authorities can then apply to a court for a parenting order to enforce the actions outlined in the contract. Adults who fail to obey the parenting order risk a £1,000 fine or a community sentence.
In her first major speech on alcohol, at the Business Design Centre in Islington, Ms Smith was also set to moot plans for a ban on teenagers drinking alcohol in public. Those under 18 are banned from buying alcohol but not from consuming it.
The Government is concerned that some parents are fuelling under-age drinking by allowing too much alcohol at home and is launching a £750,000 campaign to confiscate cans, bottles and glasses of alcohol being drunk from by teenagers in public.
The campaign also extends police powers by enabling them to confiscate alcohol from under-18s even if the teenagers insist they are not planning to drink it themselves. This aims to confine any under-age drinking to the home.
However, ministers are not just concerned about young drinkers but also older, often middle-class, men and women consuming harmful levels of wine and other alcoholic beverages.
A new £10 million advertising campaign will be launched in the summer to raise awareness of the effects of drink. Ministers, though, believe they have made progress in tackling pubs and off-licences selling alcohol to under-age drinkers.
Only one in six licensed premises now breaks the law by selling drink to teenagers instead of half of them three years ago.
HOW THE LAW STANDS NOW
Under five years old: It is illegal to give alcohol to a child under five except under medical supervision in an emergency.
Under-16s: Can go anywhere in a pub as long as they are supervised by an adult, but cannot have alcohol. Some premises' licensing conditions may bar them.
16 or 17 years old: Can drink beer, wine or cider with a meal if it is bought by an adult and they are accompanied by an adult. It is illegal for this age group to drink spirits in pubs even with a meal.
Under 18 years old: Illegal to buy alcohol in a pub, off-licence, supermarket or other outlet, or for anyone to buy alcohol for someone under 18 to consume in a pub or a public place.
source: www.direct.gov.uk
Reader views (9)
Why can't New Labour just pipe down? They are full of dreadful, depressing mediocrities, and Jacqui Smith is herself as depressing and mediocre as they come - even by New Labour's own ghastly standards. Stop knocking parents all the time, Jacqui, and take some responsibility for your over-manned, wasteful, bureaucratic and failing state education system whose failure accounts for most of the teenage problems. Better still, resign - give us all a break and let someone who can do the job properly get on with it.
- Peter Johns, Toulon, France
Silly woman. Who is going to police this stupid idea?
- Mick W, wellingborough uk
"If a young person is being picked up night after night for drinking, there's clearly a problem with their parents as well," - wasn't Euan Blair under 18 when he was found legless in Leicester Square?
- Caroline, London
I'm assuming that the majority of children that drink come from poorer families so how could they afford £1000? It would just be increasing their debt. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that alcohol is not good for children as it's not good for adults if taken excessively so why waste more taxpayers' money?
- Moo, South London, UK
Can you imagine this law being introduced in Italy and France where adults and children drink wine around the dinner table?
- Peter, London
How exactly will the government know if a child has been given alcohol? There is no sensible way to implement this idea. Are they saying they will fine someone who buys alcohol in a shop for a child? Are there going to be big sting operations? What a load of rubbish. How will the government know what happens behind closed doors? I can’t believe this is the government answer to the problem of underage drinking and the violence caused in its aftermath. I always thought Jacqui Smith looked a bit gormless, it looks like she is proving me right.
- Paul B, London
Is this woman off her rocker? this government changed the laws on drinking etc and now they want to punish parents because 16 yr olds can obtain drink.....think it's time the public took this government to court as they seem to be undermining parents control all the time...since when is it ok for a child to threaten parents with the law ...well that's what's happening since this government has been in power
- Sarah, London
Would this have applied to the B Liars when their eldest son was picked up by the police for being drunk? Does Ma Smith have any offspring? Smile if they were arrested; like the B Liars' kid, the plod would quietly take them home to mummy or what ever is the latest PC name for the female of the species who gave birth to them.
- Blind Pugh, Addlestone, UK
If they don't pay the fine what happens? Just how is sending parents on a residential course telling them of the perils of alcohol going to stop their own kids from drinking. Most of them probably slob about all day themselves getting tanked up. How much more taxpayers money is this hideous government going to waste. Bring back the birch. Cheap and effective.
- Sue, Orpington, Kent
