Australian officials, known for a proactive policy approach to alcohol, have drawn up a list of '39 indicators for drunkenness' to assist pub
and club owners identify drunken patrons. The list may be significant
for UK policy in that prosecutions for selling alcohol to people who
are believed to be drunk are rare. Under S.141 of the 2003 Licensing act, an offence of “knowingly” selling alcohol to an intoxicated person can be judged by a police officer who can issue an £80 Fixed Penalty Notice.
However there are no official guidelines for identifying drunkenness. Alcohol related training for police and bar staff on is considered best practice and encouraged through local alcohol strategies in the local strategy implementation toolkit. Last year a Home Office Christmas campaign funded 90 police forces across England and Wales to carry out alcohol awareness raising and enforcement exercises focusing on premises not addressing drunkenness issues according to their responsibilities.
Consultation on proposals to address alcohol related issues including licensing problems is currently open until October 15th; consultation documents can be found here.
Interesting report on identifying drunkeness in Manchester:
http://www.cph.org.uk/showPublication.aspx?pubid=387
Posted by: James Morris | Monday, June 22, 2009 at 01:14 AM