'Under-18 booze crackdown working'

The battle to stop underage drinkers getting hold of alcohol appears to be working, new statistics have shown.

Between May 4 and July 13, 2007, 2,683 premises were targeted by police and trading standards officers as part of the national Tackling Underage Sales of Alcohol Campaign (TUSAC).

Statistics from the ten-week campaign show that in nearly 9,000 test purchase operations, children were only able to obtain alcohol in 14.7 per cent of cases.

This compares to 50 per cent in 2004 and 20 per cent in 2006.

And only 22 premises (0.8 per cent of those targeted) sold alcohol to children on three separate occasions.

Meanwhile, figures from the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) have shown alcohol consumption in the UK has fallen for the second year running.

Drinkers got through on average 8.9 litres of alcohol per person in 2006 compared to 9.4 litres in 2004. The 3.3 per cent year-on-year dip recorded in 2006 is the largest in 15 years,

Beer now makes up 43 per cent of the nation's alcohol consumption, with wine at 29 per cent and spirits at 20 per cent. The remaining 8 per cent relates to cider and other drinks.

That breakdown compares to 1990 when beer had a bigger slice of the market at 57 per cent, with spirits at 22 per cent and wine at just 18 per cent.

© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.