Licensing Act 2003

I believe that all hon. Members would like to congratulate the Under-Secretary on a sterling performance. He has been dealt an especially bad hand and he is doing his best to play it. However, hon. Members will have been astonished by the way in which he has done it. Throughout his speech, he acknowledged a range of problems with the Licensing Act 2003. At a time when the Act is almost due to be implemented, a Minister stood before us and promised that he would continue to consult group after group—village halls, carnivals, circuses, small shops or anything that anyone cared to mention—about the various issues. He even told us that, during the summer, there would be consultation on the temporary events notices arrangements. I stress that all that relates to a measure that is already in force and is due to be effected on 24 November. I therefore congratulate the Under-Secretary on his willingness at least to listen to the concerns. The Government would have done well to listen to the concerns that hon. Members of all parties raised about this measure when the hon. Gentleman was not a part of it. All hon. Members will acknowledge that we have a serious problem of binge drinking. I mention that because the Under-Secretary wanted me to deal with his anxiety about our position. In a recent parliamentary question, I asked about the increase in violent offences connected with licensed premises. In the past 12 months alone, the figure has increased by 15 per cent., so that a staggering 50,000 such offences were committed in England and Wales in the past year. Recent figures show that admissions to accident and emergency departments resulting from alcohol abuse are now a staggering 25,000. A parliamentary question from my hon. Friend the Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Lynne Featherstone) elicited the response that, in the past 12 months, there has been an increase of 18.5 per cent. in alcohol-related deaths. We are storing up a huge problem. According to the Government’s figures, 44 per cent. of 18 to 24-year-olds binge-drink at least once a month. Again from the Government’s figures, we know that binge drinking costs our society more than £20 billion a year. What has been the Government’s response to that? They were elected in 1997 and it took them six years to devise their alcohol harm reduction strategy. In that time, 240,000 people died from alcohol abuse. It took until last year for the Prime Minister to acknowledge that binge drinking was a British disease. The Government did not consider existing legislation to ascertain whether it could help to tackle the problem. Legislation exists to prosecute landlords for allowing drunken or riotous behaviour on their premises. Since 1997, when the Government came to power, there has been an average of only 11 prosecutions a year. That shows how little use is made of existing legislation. Legislation also exists to prevent people from buying drinks for others who are clearly drunk. Yet how many prosecutions have been brought since 1997? The answer is a grand total of 12—and in 2000 or 2001, none were brought.