Just the facts?

Research has cast doubt on claims by the police and doctors that pubs are the cause of the majority of late-night violence. Kerry Rogan reports​Anyone who has visited Britain's town centres at 11.30pm on a Saturday night knows they are not always the nicest places to take a stroll.Spiralling crime statistics tell the same story of drunk and disorderly youths fighting and causing trouble after a night on the beer and, of course, it is pubs that are blamed.Licensees and trade leaders have been battling against this poor reputation for years, arguing that pubs are not the sole cause of the trouble and instead social attitudes to drink - and more importantly, licensing laws - need to be changed.But, until now, the statistics have spoken for themselves. Accident and Emergency (A&E) doctors, the police, local councils, Alcohol Concern and the Home Office have quoted figures such as "70 to 80 per cent of late-night violence in town centres is alcohol-related" and, despite licensees' objections, this has been taken as fact.However, all that could be about to change. A new report published by drinks watchdog The Portman Group, has discovered the statistics are so inconsistent they are "meaningless".The Counting the Cost study, which was conducted by the Social Issues Research Centre in Oxford, also discovered that the systems many police forces use to track alcohol-related violence are, according to the police themselves, "crap".The researchers, led by Dr Peter Marsh, concluded: "We have been unable to discover any procedures that can provide anything more than rough indications of the level of alcohol-related violence and disorder. All existing procedures, in our view, have such serious weaknesses that they are unable to provide truly objective and reliable data."According to the report, the main problem lies with the methods of collecting the data.It found that less than a quarter of police forces kept any record of alcohol-related crime at all and of those 70 per cent had no intention of doing so. The report said: "A number of officers, when asked to justify assertions that up to 80 per cent of injuries were attributable in part to the consumption of alcohol, either admitted it was just a guess or referred vaguely to experience."A&E doctors were also found to be divided on the extent that alcohol leads to injuries - with the highest estimates coming from the departments without clear recording methods.One doctor said: "We have recently calculated that more than 75 per cent of trolley cases are alcohol-related."But another said: "Everyone has the impression that A&E is swimming with drunks on a Saturday night but it's not really that bad."Definitions of what alcohol-related meant were also found to vary wildly - sometimes even within the same hospital or police station.Some thought it meant the incident would not have happened if the people involved had not been drinking, others that alcohol aggravated an existing problem, and still more believed an incident should be classed as alcohol-related even if only one of the people involved had consumed just one drink.One police officer said: "The current form, which is submitted on the arrest of an individual, has a tick box which states alcohol, yes or no. This is ambiguous as officers tend to tick yes if it's theft of a bottle of beer or damage to an off licence window, for example."Data was also found to be distorted by changing police procedures. In many areas police are now arresting people for minor offences that had been previously overlooked - leading to an increase in the number of incidents recorded.There was also the fact that people were found to direct the police to incidents using pubs as landmarks - giving the impression the disorder was related to the pub.Clearly the confusion surrounding the statistics - which have even been used in the past to prevent pubs gaining late licences - is not good news for the trade.Although it would be dangerous for the industry to deny any involvement in alcohol-related crime, the report means that hundreds of pubs might have been unfairly blamed.Gareth John, executive officer for Licensed Victuallers (Wales), said he was not surprised by the news. Three years ago pubs in Cardiff were the target of a "name and shame" campaign by hospital doctors. They used information gathered from patients in A&E to name pubs where they believe violence had taken place."The police told me that they were concerned about the quality of the information," Mr John said. "Most of it was inaccurate and some was even about pubs that no longer existed."As well as painting a bleak picture of town centre pubs at weekends, the failure of the police and hospitals to hold any clear statistics on alcohol-related crime means it is difficult to monitor the positive effects of relaxing licensing laws such as on New Year's Eve.But The Portman Group has passed the report to the Government and is now hoping for a more effective way of monitoring alcohol-related crime statistics."It is self-evident that alcohol-related crime is a problem," director Jean Coussins said. "But the Government will stand no chance whatsoever of knowing how best to prevent it, or whether it's getting better or worse, unless it helps to sort out the chaos of record keeping."Role of the trade​The report's comments on the role of the trade:

• Stamp out "irresponsible promotions and discounting" which lead to excessive alcohol consumption and the serving of underage customers
• Maintain a high level of professionalism in the trade. The British Institute of Innkeeping and the British Beer and Pub Association, and programmes developed by The Portman Group, are of particular significance
• There are indications that the role of the alcohol industry is not sufficiently defined at a local level. The increased involvement of local representatives of trade bodies in crime reduction partnerships is needed.

Defining 'alcohol-related'​Police licensing officers varied in their definition of "alcohol-related":

Reliability of records​Police licensing officers believed their records:

Related stories:​Portman Group: Alcohol-related crime figures 'meaningless' (7th March 2002)