By Peter Tromp PhD
Before reading about the UK Labour government’s latest social policy proposals below on fining ‘parents’ for up to a £1,000 for their children’s alcohol misuse and binge-drinking, you should be aware of the following research showing that teenagers living without their biological fathers are more likely to drink alcohol:
1. In the West of Scotland, 18-year-old girls from lone-parent households were twice as likely to drink heavily as those from intact two-birthparent homes (17.6% compared to 9.2%). This finding holds even after controlling for poverty.
Source: Sweeting, West and Richards (1998), ‘Teenage Family life, lifestyles and life chances’, pp. 15–46.
2. British 16-year-olds from lone-parent households are no more likely to drink than those from intact households. This is mainly because higher levels of teenage drinking actually are associated with higher family incomes. After controlling for household income and sex, teenagers from lone-parent families were 40% more likely to drink.
Source: Ely, West, Sweeting and Richards (2000), ‘Teenage Family Life, Life chances, lifestyles and health’, pp. 1–30.
The alcohol misuse problem addressed by the Labour government now (see below), might therefore very well be a self-created one, resulting from the Labour Government’s own family breakdown policies. This raises the legitimate question of who is to decide on the fine Labour is to get for its family breakdown policies and who is to serve it!?
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Home Secretary admits majority of 13-year-olds drink as she threatens £1,000 fine for parents of binge-drinking children
Daily Mail – By JAMES SLACK – More by this author » Comments (5) – Last updated at 21:54pm on 6th February 2008
Britain has passed a “worrying tipping point” where more 13-year-olds drink alcohol than do not, the Home Secretary said yesterday.
Jacqui Smith also warned of young adult binge-drinkers with an “appetite for destruction” causing mayhem in town centres.
Despite admitting the huge alcohol problem, she gave a clear indication that 24-hour drinking is here to stay.
Binge Britain: Parents are to be fined £1,000 if their children are caught with alcohol in public. Under-18s are currently banned from buying alcohol but not from consuming it
A review, due to report within weeks, is expected to recommend no change.
Miss Smith said: “Without pre-empting the findings of the review, I do not expect the impact of changes to licensing hours on crime and disorder to have been as dramatic as some have suggested.”
She delivered the blunt warning that 13-year-olds who drink are now in the majority for the age group – giving a total of nearly 350,000 in England and Wales – while unveiling heavily-trailed “new” powers to tackle the problem.
Miss Smith, who has sons aged 14 and nine, said police could be given new rights to confiscate alcohol from underage drinkers – those below the age of 18 – caught by the police in public places.
She also threatened the parents of underage drinkers with “parenting contracts” which could lead to a £1,000 fine if ignored.
And she said an enforcement campaign costing £875,000 to confiscate alcohol will take place during next week’s half-term holidays in 175 areas of the country.
Her remarks come after the widespread alarm caused by the murder last year of devoted father Garry Newlove by young thugs who had been drinking on the streets of Warrington.
But opponents dismissed the announcement as nothing more than a “headline-grabbing gimmick”.
Police have had powers to seize alcohol from youngsters since 1997. Her proposed change, which is not certain to happen, would merely remove a requirement that police must suspect that an under-18 plans to consume the drink – which officers say has never been a problem.
It also emerged that the parenting contracts are nothing more than a “voluntary agreement”.
Parents of the worst teenage drinkers could simply opt out of them.
David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: “This is yet another half-baked announcement designed to grab a headline.
Jacqui Smith: cracking down on teenage drinking
“The powers to confiscate alcohol from underage drinkers on the street were proposed and passed under the last Conservative government, but ministers have no idea how effective the existing law is because they haven’t the faintest idea how often it has been used.”
Of more long-term significance are likely to be Miss Smith’s remarks on irresponsible drinks promotions. She dropped heavy hints that if pubs and supermarkets do not stop selling alcohol so cheaply, the Government will be prepared to regulate.
As the Daily Mail revealed last month, this could include laws setting aside Competition Commission rules which bar a minimum price being fixed for the sale of alcohol.
Miss Smith revealed that the Government has commissioned a firm of auditors to carry out a review of whether pubs, clubs, off-licences and supermarkets are abiding by the standards set by the alcohol industry.
The report by KPMG – due to be completed by the end of next month – will focus on these cutprice drink promotions.
The Home Secretary said: “It can’t be right that you can still find promotions for 50p shots until midnight or “all you can drink for a tenner” nights.
“And people are increasingly asking whether the approach to alcohol sales, marketing and promotions is as responsible as it needs to be.”
She is also writing to chief constables telling them to take action against shops which sell alcohol to children.
“We have now reached a worrying tipping point where more 13-year- olds have drunk alcohol than have not,” Miss Smith told a Home Office conference on alcohol enforcement in north London.
“This is clearly a cause for concern.
“There is alcohol education in schools, but we need to make sure this is as effective as possible in alerting children to the dangers of drinking.”
Parents are also to blame, she said. “The idea that you can hand your kids a six-pack of lager and tell them to disappear off for the evening – with no thought to the consequences – frankly baffles me.”
Miss Smith also admitted alarm at “young binge-drinkers, the 18 to 24-year-olds whose capacity for alcohol consumption seems to be matched in extreme cases only by an appetite for destruction”.
She said a multi-million pound advertising campaign later this year will set out “in no uncertain terms” the dangers of bingedrinking.
A scheme which sees alcohol-related offenders referred to special counsellors will also be extended to ten more areas.
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Parents face £1,000 fines for giving children drink
London Evening Standard - By Nicholas Cecil – Add your view – 06.02.08
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
(9) – Add your view Here’s a sample of the latest views published.
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
