London: Government to unveil new alcohol strategy

London, June 5: The government will unveil a new alcohol strategy on Tuesday expected to focus on how to counter binge-drinking by changing young people's attitudes and behaviour.

The strategy will not propose new laws but ''a considerable amount of energy is being prepared to be unleashed'', according to a Home Office spokesman.

At the heart of the approach, being unveiled by Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker, is expected to be the ambitious aim of changing Britain's drinking culture and views on drunkenness.

It is also expected to announce plans to clamp down on those selling alcohol to underage children using new powers that mean licensees can be fined 10,000 pounds if they are caught selling alcohol to under 18s three times in a three-month period.

''Most people drink sensibly but there's three main groups we think are damaging themselves and others,'' the spokesman said.

The groups to be targeted are the under 18s, binge drinkers aged 18-24, and older drinkers unaware of the damage caused by their behaviour.

Numerous reports in recent years have highlighted the health and social problems caused by heavy drinking in Britain.

In April, a study by Alcohol Concern found that binge drinking had rocketed among young children aged 11-13, while last year a survey found that Britain had the worst problem with anti-social behaviour in Europe, often fuelled by alcohol.

Official figures show that the number of middle-aged men drinking themselves to death had soared.

In 2005, the government introduced extended drinking hours in the hope it would create more civilised habits.

But Labour party chairman Hazel Blears said the apparent failure to wean people away from binge drinking might be because Britons enjoyed getting drunk.

''We are going to look at how we can change the drinking culture particularly among the young,'' the Home Office spokesman said of the new strategy.

This is expected to involve the creation of a group of independent experts to give advice to under 18s about acceptable levels of drinking.

It is also likely to involve a series of adverts and public information campaigns, with the hope they will be as effective as the message that help persuade people that drink-driving was socially unacceptable.

''Can government do that again? We think we can,'' the spokesman said.

Tuesday's message comes on the back of an announcement last month that health warnings were to be put on the labels of all alcoholic drinks to let drinkers know how much they were consuming and what the recommended safe limits were.

Reuters>