Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

The British Crime Survey states that alcohol is a factor in no less than 47 per cent of violent crime. That breaks down to 45 per cent of incidents of domestic violence, 58 per cent of incidents of stranger violence and 51 per cent of incidents of acquaintance violence. It is central to violent offending. All that the amendments of the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, are seeking to do is to put the treatment of alcohol-driven offences by young offenders on the same basis as alcohol-driven offences by adults. A recent survey suggests that alcohol treatment funding made up only 6 per cent of the funding that drug treatment services receive. If that is an accurate statistic, it is an astonishing one. We know that drugs play an important role, particularly in theft and burglary. Nevertheless, it is violent crime that is most disturbing the general public—and, indeed, the Government—and it is plain that alcohol is a major cause. The amendments will involve resources, but I think they will be resources exceedingly well spent to try and contain that problem. I will be most interested to hear the Government’s response.