'Alcohol abuse 'costing NI £700m each year'

An independent report has said excessive drinking costs the public purse in Northern Ireland almost £700m a year. The figures were worked out by a team of consultants commissioned by the Department of Health. Among the costs they estimate are £224m a year for the police and fire services and £122m for the NHS - BBC​

Head teachers in England are to be given the power to search pupils for items such as drugs, alcohol and mobile phones. Pornography, fireworks and iPods are also being added to the list of items pupils can be searched for against their will. Currently they can only be searched for weapons - BBC​

Punch Taverns, Britain's biggest pub owner, said sales have returned to growth in the last month, helped by the hot weather and people watching England's games in the early stages of the World Cup. However its profits remain under pressure as Punch has not passed on a 3pc to 5pc rise in beer prices to its tenants. "In this economic environment, the cost pressures cannot be passed on because they would be too heavy for our partners to bear," said Phil Dutton, Punch's finance director - The Telegraph​

A two-day hearing into the city council's decision to reduce the capacity of pubs judged to not have enough female toilets will not take place until October. Caledonian Heritable, one of Edinburgh's biggest pub operators, took the council to court last week over the controversial ruling that affects three of its pubs: the Pear Tree and Clark's Bar in the city centre, and the Ormelie Bar in Joppa. Edinburgh is said to be the only licensing board in Scotland that is enforcing the new building regulations rules on existing pubs that means every pub has to have roughly one toilet for every 30 customers - The Scotsman​