Alcoholic Drinks: Public Places

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were (a) prosecuted and (b) convicted for an offence of not obeying an instruction to stop drinking in a designated public place in each year since 1998. (314999)

The number of prosecutions, convictions and penalty notices for disorder for not obeying an instruction to stop drinking in a designated public place in each year from 2002-08 (latest available) can be viewed in the following table. Data prior to 2002 are not available as the offence of alcohol consumption in a public place came into force on 1 September 2001.

Court proceedings data for 2009 are planned to be published in autumn 2010.

Number of defendants issued a penalty notice of disorder, proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for not obeying an instruction to stop drinking in a designated public place, 2002-08, England and Wales^{1, 2, 3, 4}
Offence description		2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Failure to obey an instruction to stop alcohol consumption in designated public place (Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001, Sec 12)	Penalty notice of disorder	—	—	485	712	1,061	1,544	1,761
	Proceeded against	37	108	122	101	101	113	⁵153
	Found guilty	34	94	96	76	73	98	⁵123
¹ The figures given in the table relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences, it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. ² 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 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. ³ The number of defendants found guilty in a particular year may exceed those proceeded against, as it may be the case that the proceedings in the magistrates court took place in the preceding year and they were found guilty at the Crown court in the following year, or the defendants was found guilty for a different offence to the original offence proceeded against. ⁴ The offence of alcohol consumption in designated public place (section 12 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001) came into force on 1 September 2001. ⁵ Excludes prosecutions and convictions data for Cardiff magistrates court for April, July and August 2008. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services: Ministry of Justice.

Volume 506: debated on Tuesday 23 February 2010