'Drunk sales' prosecutions fall in 2013

By Mike Berry

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags United kingdom

It is an offence to knowingly sell alcohol to someone who is drunk.
It is an offence to knowingly sell alcohol to someone who is drunk.
Just 10 people were prosecuted in England and Wales last year for selling alcohol to a drunk person, official figures have shown.

Shailesh Vara, parliamentary under-secretary of state in the Ministry of Justice, revealed the figure in Parliament this week in response to a written question from Labour MP Luciana Berger.

The figure represents a drop from 18 prosecutions in 2012.

Under current legislation (Section 141 of the Licensing Act 2003), it is an offence to knowingly sell alcohol to someone who is drunk.

An alternative to prosecution in the courts are Penalty Notices for Disorders, which allow police to issue a fixed fine – 63 of these were issued in 2013.

Written policy

A recent report from charity Alcohol Research UK called on the Government to consider the introduction of mandatory licensing conditions requiring premises to produce a written policy on sales to drunk customers.

Earlier this year, the Government proposed changes to sentencing guidelines that would see a four-fold increase to £4,000 for the selling of alcohol to a drunk person. No date has been set for these changes to come into force.

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