Law firm joins battle against alcohol-related disorder

The UK Home Office has commissioned law firm Walker Morris to develop a nationwide training programme for local authorities.

Paddy Whur, partner at Walker Morris and licensing law specialist, reports on the impact of the pilot scheme, which forms part of government efforts to tackle alcohol-related disorder.

Alcohol related crime and disorder has a major impact on the quality of life for many people. It is linked to a wide range of offences, from murder, assault, driving offences, disorderly conduct and criminal damage through to anti-social behaviour.

Public drunkenness, particularly around licensed premises at closing time, can blight entire areas. Even the prospect of such problems can lead to the very real fear of crime and a reduction in the quality of life.

There is a widespread acceptance that the move to liberalise the licensing laws and introduce 24 hour drinking, has failed to bring about the so called ‘cafe’ style culture and more importantly has had little effect on rates of alcohol fuelled crime and disorder.

So a new Home Office programme led by law firm Walker Morris, to help train police, licensing officers and Community Safety Partnerships to use their legislative powers more effectively is being monitored closely as the whole 24-hour drinking environment is being debated once more.

The Home Office commissioned Walker Morris to develop a series of training programmes for local authorities following concerns by the government and police that officers were not using the considerable powers available to them to tackle alcohol related crime and disorder.

Walker Morris put together a training team that included expert licensing lawyers, serving and former police and local authority licensing officers. Over the past two months the team has been holding training courses in 26 areas of the country, focusing on more than 500 of the most problematic licensed premises.

The courses took place over three days and began with a discussion involving police, trading standards and the local authority looking at the issues of problem alcohol consumption in the town – including underage drinking, antisocial behaviour and breaches of license.

On the second day, the group then identified the 20 most problematic premises in its area and carried out snap enforcement visits the same day to put the training to a practical use.

The results of the initiatives so far are encouraging. The first training sessions in Bristol alone have resulted in the immediate closure of three premises which were operating illegally, making a real contribution to improving the local community.

Although it is too early to provide a full assessment of the programme’s impact, over 500 premises will have been visited and local authorities across the country will now be empowered to deal effectively with any alcohol related crime and disorder in their area.

The current programme follows a successful pilot project also run by law firm Walker Morris in four locations – Newham, where the local authority was under pressure to improve the situation ahead of the London Olympics in 2012, Newquay where the deaths of two teenagers highlighted the problems the town had with under-age drinking, Lincoln and North Nottinghamshire.

During the pilot projects, eight pubs were closed as a result of the inspection visits. The problems varied according to the conditions of each licence but included failure to maintain CCTV, failure to supply door staff, a lack of qualified designated premises supervisors on the premises, serving under age customers and premises failing to deal with criminality on the premises e.g. drug problems.

In Newquay the police and the local authority have reported a real improvement particularly on tackling underage drinking. In Newham the council say that serious violent crime in licensed premises has gone down by over 64% largely due to improved measures to tackle licensing breaches as a result of the Home Office training.

This country has many other questions it needs to address if it is to have a chance of changing its abusive drinking culture but this programme is helping tackle some of the worst effects of alcohol related crime and disorder.