New pint glass designers face "big ask" says BBPA

The British Beer & Pub Association has warned that designers for a new plastic pint glass face a "big ask" to invent something that looks and feels like glass.

Yesterday it emerged that the Home Office has appointed designers to come up with a new form of pint glass by December to reduce injuries from glass-related incidents.

Official figures show there are 87,000 violent incidents a year involving glass, which cost the authorities around £100m.

But the BBPA has hit back. Communications manager Neil Williams said: "It's a big ask, as they will need to come up with the holy grail of something that looks and feels like glass, but doesn't break into pieces."

The new safer pint glasses will be designed by the firm Design Bridge, after it was appointed by the Design Council. The company is also tasked with producing a design that is "attractive to industry, manufacturers and consumers".

The project is part of the Design Out Crime initiative from the Home Office's Design & Technology Alliance Against Crime and the Design Council.

Home Office Minister Alan Campbell said: "Innovative design has played an important role in driving down overall crime by a third since 1997 tackling a range of crimes including theft, fraud and burglary with innovative and practical solutions to real problems.

"This project will see those same skills applied to the dangerous and costly issue of alcohol-related crime and I am confident that it will lead to similar successes."

Williams said the BBPA also would "strongly resist" a blanket approach to placing them in pubs as it would "add to costs and diminish the drinking experience in the thousands of premises that don't need to do this".

However a Home Office spokeswoman said the government would not make the new glasses mandatory.

"Where glass-related alcohol-fuelled crime has been reported we would recommend local authorities and the police to consider requiring premises to introduce plastic or polycarbonate glasses to prevent such incidents from occurring again."