CRIME & DISORDER 2012 SCRUTINY TOPIC GROUP

BACKGROUND REPORT

Author: Kate Phillips, Programme Manager Alcohol and Anti-Social Behaviour

  1. Problems associated with Alcohol

1.1.National Picture

1.2.Alcohol is the first drug of choice for a number of the British population and is used as an acceptable means of celebration to relax and have fun. However a growing number of people are drinking above safe limits and with these levels of consumption come significant problems.

1.3.Alcohol is an issue that can permeate all aspects of community and personal life in every local area. It can be a cause of crime or a contributory factor. The links between alcohol misuse and crime, especially violent crime, criminal damage and anti-social behaviour are well known as is the impact of such crimes, either directly witnessed/experienced or through the media, on public perceptions.

1.4.In the United Kingdom, one in four adults drink above the recommended daily units (two to three for a woman and three to four for a man) and 70% of peak time admissions in Accident and Emergency departments (A&E) are alcohol related.[1]

1.5.The cost of alcohol related issues in Britain is estimated to stand at £23billion.[2] In 2009 one million violent crimes were recorded as being alcohol related. One fifth of all violent incidents took place in or around a public house.[3]

1.6.In England the average alcohol use of a young nightlife user on a single night exceeds their entire recommended safe weekly limit [4]

  1. Local Picture

2.1.The Local Alcohol Profiles for England (LAPE) show that overall Hertfordshire is better or equal to the England average on a number of issues.

2.2.However, this does not mean Hertfordshire can become complacent. In some districts problems are shown to be worse. For example, for the year 2009/2010 Stevenage was shown to be significantly worse than the national average in alcohol attributable violent crimes and recorded crimes overall and also in the amounts of people ‘Binge Drinking’ (defined as the percentage of those over 18 who consume at least twice of the daily recommended limits in a single drinking session.)

2.3.Watford is significantly worse in the number of claimants of incapacity benefit who cite alcoholism as their main reason for inability to work. They are also worse than the regional average in a number of other categories including alcohol related admissions and alcohol related mortality for females.

2.4.In Hertfordshire, out of the ten districts, the figures around alcohol related sexual violence showed a slight increase in six districts and eight were down in relation to alcohol attributable violent crime, when compared to the previous year. [5] However, it must be noted that the number of alcohol related sexual violence remains very low. There are also well documented issues around the police recording of offences with an alcohol marker, which is problematic not only in Hertfordshire but also across constabularies countrywide, which can sometimes affect the numbers recorded.

  1. Night Time Economy

3.1.Hertfordshire has a number of town centres with identifiable Night Time Economies. The four main town centres with the largest are:

  • Hertford;
  • St Albans;
  • Stevenage; and,
  • Watford

Stevenage also has a leisure park consisting of several licensed premises[6] attracting a large numbers of visitors, including many from outside the immediate local area.

3.2.Analysis has been undertaken on the above town centres. The analysis shows that in 2010/11 St Albans, Stevenage and Watford all experienced decreases to the violent crime figures. The only exception to this is Hertford which showed a slight increase in violent offences. It should be noted with caution that some of these percentage increases or decreases could be attributed to changes in the way crimes are recorded. For example, common-assault is now recorded as common-assault without injury. It is also important to note that this takes into account all offences in this area, alcohol related or otherwise. This could therefore mean there are a number of offences that are not alcohol related. Due to the problems of recording an offence as alcohol related it is often easier to look at violent crime overall to give a sense of the scale of the problem in certain areas.

  1. Local Authority and Licensing committees

4.1.The Local Authority has the role of licensing committee for their local area. The powers they have include suspending, revoking or adding additional conditions to licenses and these powers have a significant effect on the future business of licensed premises. In conjunction with the local authority Hertfordshire has a number of successful Pubwatch schemes, bringing together local licensees to discuss approaches to problem issues. A number of pubwatches already have very successful local banning schemes for problem customers. In Stevenage, the behave or be banned scheme works by banning an offender from not only the premise the disorder was committed in, but also from all other Pubwatch premises in Stevenage.

4.2.The Licensing Act of 2003, sets out the mechanisms within which all partners are to act with regard to licensed premises. This Act is currently undergoing a number of changes including:

  • Increasing the maximum fine for premises persistently selling to those underage to £20,000 from £10,000.
  • Option for local areas to apply a late night levy to premises opening after a certain time in order to recoup costs for additional policing or initiatives such as Taxi Marshalling.
  • Representations against licensing applications can now be made by any member of the public regardless of their distance from proposed venue.

4.3.A mandatory code was introduced in 2010 which sets out 5 conditions premises now additionally have to comply with; namely the availability of free tap water, ban on irresponsible promotions and on the dispensing of alcohol directly into the mouth, smaller measures available and robust age verification policies.

  1. Street Pastors

5.1.Street Pastors are a well liked and used resource existing within town centres in Hertfordshire. Street Pastors use volunteers from local church groups who are available in the town centres, usually at weekends, and provide an extra support for anyone using the night time economy.

5.2.Street pastors offer assistance such as taking people to a place of safety, providing support if people are intoxicated and separated from their friends and a reassuring presence. They also work in close liaison with the local police and are an important part of the package of interventions available in the night time economy.

  1. Taxi Marshalls

6.1.Taxi Marshalls were first introduced in Hertfordshire in October 2005. The first marshalled rank was located in St Albans. Subsequent schemes were rolled out in November of the same year (Watford and Hertford), January 2006 (Stevenage) and December 2006 (Hitchin). A further scheme was introduced at Batchwood Hall night club in St. Albans in November 2009. It should be noted that the service now no longer operates in Hitchin – this ceased in June of 2010.

6.2.The Taxi Marshall Service operates primarily on a Friday and Saturday night. Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) also locally buy in marshalls on other evenings as required, for example in Watford on a Monday evening to cover student nights.

6.3.The purpose of Taxi Marshalls is to ensure safe and swift dispersal of people exiting the night time economy. Key elements to this role are:

  • monitor the queue;
  • liaise between clients and taxi drivers;
  • identify where clients wish to travel to;
  • ensure clients have sufficient fare to cover their journey (on occasion this may entail the pre-payment of a journey);
  • check for sobriety (to ensure clients are in a fit state to travel);
  • ensure clients are not eating;
  • ensure clients do not take drinks into taxis.

6.4.Taxi Marshals are linked in with the wider night-time economy to ensure that they work effectively and in conjunction with other services. The marshals are, for instance, in radio contact with CCTV operators who can alert the marshals to individuals who are heading for the taxi rank is they have been problematic elsewhere in the town centre. It is the responsibility of CCTV operatives (and not the Taxi Marshals) to determine whether police support is needed with regard to any given incident. As with the CCTV staff, other door staff are able to alert the Taxi Marshals as to any potential problems in advance.

6.5.The service aims to reduce alcohol related anti social behaviour, increase people’s feelings of safety both the public and the drivers and positive promotion of the night time economy.

6.6.Surveys have been carried out with taxi drivers to assess their perceptions of the Taxi Marshal Service, of those agreeing to take part, the majority agreed that they felt safer to operate at night since the Taxi Marshals service was introduced. A driver in St Albans stated:

‘The introduction of the marshals has improved the service offered to the public and introduced a sense of safety and security among the customers’

Other questions were asked about Taxi Marshals’ communication skills, ability to deal with hostile situations and overall relationships between drivers and marshals. In the majority of cases, the questions were answered ‘Excellent’ or ‘Good.’[7]

6.7.A full evaluation was conducted of the Taxi Marshal service in 2010 and the results were very encouraging. Recommendations from the report have already been implemented which included Taxi Marshals monitoring when they prevent crime and disorder – something which would not be shown in crime figures. Based on what it was possible to tell from the available data, it would seem that Taxi Marshals are an integral part of the package of interventions tackling disorder in the night time economy.[8]

  1. Brief Interventions Service

7.1.This service began in 2005 as a pilot with one worker based in Watford hospital. It has since expanded and now has three workers.

7.2.The Brief interventions (BI) Service co-ordinates support for the three Accident and Emergency (A and E) departments in Hertfordshire. Each A and E has a worker based there during key times in order to offer support to anyone who presents with an alcohol related illness or injury. There is also a presence within St Albans and Hemel Hempstead urgent care centres and sexual health clinics.

7.3.A BI consists of a 15-20 minute discussion during which an AUDIT questionnaire [9] is carried out to determine the levels at which the individual is drinking. There is then the offer of follow up support if needed and a Binge pack, which contains relevant information, is given to each person who uses the service. If the person is too intoxicated to partake in this discussion, they are offered a follow up appointment which normally takes place over the telephone.

7.4.The BI project continues to achieve highly and recent statistics show that nearly 100% of clients were shown to have decreased their drinking at a three month follow up. In the first quarter of 2011-12, 503 interventions took place and 111 appointments were offered at structured treatment services. The reasons for the difference in interventions carried out and appointments offered is that not all those accessing a BI will be at a level that requires additional support. The BI project is designed to work with non-dependant drinkers as using the AUDIT tool has been shown to be highly effective in these circumstances.

7.5.The BI workers also liaise with nurses and doctors to ensure that referral pathways are clear and staff know how to access the BI service for patients. BI workers will always make contact with patients who express an interest in receiving support. If they cannot do so on the night because they are not present they will always follow up with a phone call.

  1. Alcohol Binge Pack

8.1.This consists of relevant information that is primarily handed out by BI workers but the pack has also been designed to be handed out to different groups of people containing targeted information, such as young and older people and those in the criminal justice system.

8.2.During the first quarter of 2011- 12, 474 Binge packs were given out.

  1. Accident and Emergency Data Sharing

9.1.In order to complement the work of the BI project, accident and emergency data sharing is being introduced in Hertfordshire.

9.2.This initiative began life as the ‘Cardiff Model’ in 1996 in Wales after Professor Jonathan Shepherd recognised that the demand placed on A and Es, particularly at night and at the weekends, was alcohol related; this involved a number of ‘glassing’ incidents. It was also noted that a lot of the violence which results in treatment did not appear on police records. A report was published emphasising the need for A and Es to share information around the types of injuries and the volume of patients presenting. This would in turn support the work of local licensing officers and police in identifying the venues causing the most issues and also any types of weapons used in such violence. In Cardiff, this led to a reduction in maxillofacial presentations to A and E and this was in part due to the replacement of glass vessels in premises with poly-carbonate.

9.3.A large amount of work has gone into promoting the benefits of such an approach in Hertfordshire. All consultants within A and E departments are particularly supportive of the benefits of such a method, but there has been a number of stumbling blocks, namely information technology issues, to overcome in order to make this a reality.

9.4.After a number of months work and influencing, WatfordHospital went live with this method of data collection in February 2011. Several reports have since been received detailing dates, times, location and types of weapons used in alcohol related offences. This information is then shared with analysts, neighbourhood inspectors and local CSPs.

9.5.However, despite a promising start, no reports have recently been received and those that have been contain only a few recorded reports. A champion within West Herts Hospital Trust is taking this issue forward and we hope to see resolutions to this shortly.

9.6.Work continues with A and E departments in Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City, where there is a large amount of support for this scheme to be implemented, but staff are either unable to dedicate the time to this initiative or software and computer issues are proving time consuming to overcome.

  1. Alcohol Diversion Scheme

10.1.The Alcohol Diversion Scheme (ADS) offers people who have been given a fixed penalty notice for Section Five public disorder or for being drunk and disorderly, the opportunity to halve their fine to £40 and attend an educational course. This means the course is self sustaining.

10.2.Hertfordshire led the way in designing such a course which allows fine payments to be used in this manner and Hertfordshire is currently advising the Ministry of Justice about the benefits of such a course.

10.3.Individuals will be told at the point of receiving the fine that this opportunity exists and Druglink, the chosen provider, will contact the individuals directly to offer this option.

10.4.Numbers vary month on month, which can be attributed to the number of fines issued or the number of people receiving a fine, from outside the area. The courses run in St Albans on a needs-led basis, usually once a month or twice if numbers require. Once an individual has completed the course, if they go on to receive another fixed penalty notice they will not have the opportunity to attend the course again.

10.5.Evaluations of the course have taken place to look at further offending from those attending the course. From April 2008 – March 2009, 103 people attended and of these only 20 went on to reoffend with 83 committing no offences in the 12 months after attending the course. Work is ongoing to evaluate those who didn’t choose to attend the course and their subsequent offending behaviour.

  1. Age Check Campaign

11.1.This campaign is led by Trading Standards and is centred on age restricted products and has two themes. Firstly allowing access to Proof of Age Standards Scheme (PASS) approved proof of age cards to those in full time education. The second strand is around working with the licensed trade to educate them around the issues of selling age restricted products to those underage.

11.2.The scheme began in order to promote proof of age schemes positively and to dissuade young people from taking passports or driving licenses out as proof of age, as the consequences of these being lost are not only costly but also compromise personal security. PASS approved age cards are endorsed by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and the Home Office as a legal proof of identify and age card.

11.3.Promotion took place in schools and colleges to promote these cards free of charge - the underage sales officer promoted access to these cards - and to date over 8000 ValidatePASS cards have been issued to young people in full time education.

11.4.Test purchasing off licensed premises is the responsibility of Trading Standards. Operations are carried out on an intelligence led basis and the officers work closely with the Police to target problem premises. Test Purchasing of on-licensed premises is the responsibility of the police.