There is no specific offence of under age drinking. However, the following table shows data from the court proceedings database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform and details the number of defendants aged 10-17 found guilty at all courts for offences related to drunkenness in 2004. This is broken down as requested. Data for 2005 will be available in the autumn. In addition to this, the penalty notice for disorder (PND) scheme, brought into effect in all police forces in England and Wales in 2004, gives the police powers to issue fixed penalty notices to persons aged 16-17 believed to be committing offences of drunkenness. No admission of guilt is required and payment of the penalty discharges all liability for the offence. Data on the number of PNDs issued to 16-17 year olds for under-age drinking in 2004, as well as provisional data for 2005, are also provided broken down by region. It is not possible to identify the number of PNDs issued in each London borough as the data are not collected at that level of detail centrally.
2004 2005 (provisional data) Drunk and disorderly Drunk in highway Consuming alcohol in a designated public place Underage consumption of alcohol on licensed premises Drunk and disorderly Drunk in highway Consuming alcohol in a designated public place Underage consumption of alcohol on licensed premises North East 44 — 1 — 61 — 2 — East midlands 81 1 1 — 121 4 4 6 West midlands 129 2 1 — 116 7 3 4 Eastern 78 2 — 2 87 7 3 — Yorkshire and Humberside 228 3 — 5 224 2 2 8 North West 494 6 15 — 689 24 18 15 South West 32 1 1 — 84 6 2 2 London 55 6 — — 61 10 3 - South East 115 6 — — 247 8 — 1 Wales 72 4 1 — 117 6 1 5 England and Wales 1,328 31 20 7 1,807 74 38 41 1 Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by police forces As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.