Home Office flip-flops on alcohol policy -

Cops spend £30,000 on flip flops - so drunk girls can walk home safely! is headline news today . The newpaper of record the daily Mirror reveals that a Home Office funded-scheme starts in Torquay, Devon, next month when flip-flops emblazoned with "booze warnings " will be handed out to tottering totties in Torquay.

Media hungry Chief Supt Chris Singer is quoted saying: “We hope it will help protect dozens of women who are vulnerable to injury after a night out.”

He appears to be ignorant of the requirement that under the Licensing Act , licensees must not serve customers who are drunk and that under section 141 of the Licensing Act 2003 they can be prosecuted. Powers requested by ACPO when the control of licenses was changed. ..vide Offences under the Act ...

141 Sale of alcohol to a person who is drunk
(1) A person to whom subsection (2) applies commits an offence if, on relevant premises, he knowingly—
(a) sells or attempts to sell alcohol to a person who is drunk, or
(b) allows alcohol to be sold to such a person.

The 2003 law requires the licensing authority (the local authority) , in considering any application for a licence must have regard to “the licensing objectives”:The prevention of crime and disorder; public safety; The prevention of public nuisance; and The protection of children from harm.

Lord Patel could take any policeman into virtually any bar after midnight almost anywhere in the country on a Friday and Saturday night and he would discover that it would be almost impossible to serve anyone who was not DRUNK.

Apparently 6% of all NHS admissions are now related to drinking alcohol, and the number rises 10% per annum.

Officials estimate that the true figure for alcohol-induced admissions last year was 811,000.

The Office for National Statistics say in 2005/6, hospitals admitted 208,000 people with diseases caused by drink. That was double the figure 10 years before.

Alcohol is thought to cause about 17,000 cases of cancer a year and £2billion of NHS money is spent every year treating patients with alcohol-related diseases.

Mark Hoban MP on Wednesday 19th March asked the Home Office how many prosecutions for sale of alcohol to a drunk person have been pursued in each criminal justice area in each of the last 10 years; and how many resulted in conviction. The Home Office could only provide Data for 2004 to 2006 only as prior to the Licensing Act 2003 coming into force, data for the offence was not held to the level of detail required.

The Totals for the whole of England & Wales was 1 in 2004 , 32 in 2005 and 47 in 2006.

See post Tuesday, May 06, 2008 UK Police ignore section 141 of the Licensing Act 2003 as public drunkeness soars. and also Sunday, March 23, 2008 Police refuse to implement Law (s.141 Licensing Act 2003) to stop sales of alcohol to drunks

In Scotland the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 has the offences ;

Section 112 - Obtaining of alcohol by or for a drunk person235. This section makes it an offence for any person to buy or attempt to buy alcohol for someone who is drunk or to help a drunk person to obtain or consume alcohol. The offences only apply where the alcohol is to be consumed on relevant premises.

Section 113 - Sale of alcohol to a drunk person
236. This section makes it an offence for any responsible person working on relevant premises to sell alcohol to someone who is drunk.

Relevant information on prosecutions is not available.

This insane publicly funded scheme is designed to encourage the sale and consumption of alcohol by drunk people... still Plod got his picture in the National Press.