Penalty Notices: Alcoholic Drinks

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) 10 to 13, (b) 14 to 15 and (c) 16 to 17-year-olds were (i) cautioned, (ii) prosecuted and (iii) in receipt of a penalty notice for disorder for purchasing alcohol under age in (A) the Uxbridge constituency, (B) Greater London, broken down by London borough and (C) England, in the last three years for which figures are available. (171484)

I have been asked to reply.

The information requested on prosecutions, cautions and penalty notices in England in the years 2004 to 2006 is provided in the table. There were no court proceedings, cautions or PNDs reported to the Ministry of Justice for the offences requested in Greater London.

Data broken down by constituency area and London borough are not held by the Ministry of Justice.

*Number of defendants aged 10 to 17 proceeded against at magistrates courts, offenders cautioned and the number of penalty notices for disorder (PNDs) issued forpurchasing alcohol illegally by age group, England 2004 to 2006*^{1, 2, 3, 4}
	Defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts	Offenders cautioned	PNDs issued⁴
	10-13	14-15	16-17	10-13	14-15	16-17	16-17
2004	—	1	9	—	7	20	⁵—
2005	—	—	12	—	7	15	16
2006	—	2	7	1	3	9	58
¹ From 1 June 2000 the Crime and Disorder Act removed the use of cautions for persons under 18 and replaced them with reprimands and final warnings. ²These data are on the principal offence basis. ³Every 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 the courts and 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. ⁴The offence of illegal purchasing of alcohol by an underage person was added to the penalty notice for disorder scheme on the 4 April 2005. ⁵Not applicable.

Volume 469: debated on Tuesday 11 December 2007