Prospective Brigg & Goole MP Andrew Percy this week expressed concern about official figures which have revealed not only a growing number of under-age drinkers are being admitted to hospital, but also that the laws against under-age drinking are not being properly enforced. This disturbing news coincides with the report from Crime Concern which has found that “drinking to get drunk is starting younger with serious consequences to health and crime”. Almost four in ten young people now start drinking at the age of 13, and half of their parents turning a blind eye.

• Figures – unearthed by the Conservatives in Parliament – reveal that under-age children who break the law by buying alcohol illegally are not being held to account. Fewer than a hundred individuals a year are punished for trying to buy alcohol illegally.

• In the Humberside Polce area just two under 18s were proceeded against in the magistrates courts for purchasing alcohol illegally between 2004-06 (most recent figures available). Worse still not a single teenager under 18 was cautioned for buying alcohol illegally during that time. In 2006 just 2 penalty notices for disorder were issued to young people in Humberside for the illegal purchasing of alcohol. 
   
• What is more, a growing number of children are now being hospitalised after being admitted to A&E due to alcohol misuse, with 860 incidents across the Yorkshire and the Humber Strategic Health Authority last year. Across the country a whole, there has been an increase of 40 per cent since 2000.

Prospective MP Andrew Percy says: “Far from making it more difficult for young people to get hold of alcohol, this Government has made it easier by introducing 24 hour off-licences. Labour’s new legislation, which was introduced in 2003 and supported by our current Labour MP, makes it possible for off-licences to apply to sell alcohol round the clock and actually excludes all but a handful of residents who live within a couple of hundred yards of a premise from objecting to the licence for a late bar or off-licence.

Young people getting hold of alcohol is a really serous issue and one which as a school teacher I know is getting worse. Most of our young people are responsible individuals but we need to accept that we have a growing minority of teenagers for whom getting drunk on the street is all part of a normal Friday or Saturday night. I find that incredibly sad as it not only causes problems for local residents it also means that we have a number of young people who are condemned to failure well before their lives have really started.”