Underage drink sales down - tests

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The Home Office has said a crackdown on underage drink sales is having an effect after undercover tests showed a reduction in sales to under-18s.

Some 1,064 of 2,683 premises targeted in the tests in England and Wales made sales to young volunteers.

Of 9,000 attempts to buy alcohol by minors 14.7% succeeded - compared with 20% in 2006.

Meanwhile, the British Beer and Pub Association says UK alcohol consumption fell for a second year in 2006.

The Tackling Underage Sales of Alcohol Campaign (Tusac) ran from May to July and targeted premises considered by police and trading standards officers to be "problematic".

These included premises that had previously failed undercover tests.

In previous years, similar undercover tests were carried out at random.

The Home Office said a further reduction in the percentage of successful attempts to buy alcohol was, therefore, "particularly encouraging".

'Improvements made'

Of the premises tested, 2,199 were off-licences and 484 were pubs.

Only 8% of the outlets made at least two sales while fewer than 1% made three sales.

The underlying figures indicate there is still room for further improvements to stop the sales first time, every time Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker

Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker said government efforts to crack down on underage alcohol sales were beginning to take effect.

He said: "This campaign clearly demonstrates that improvements can be made with only very few premises failing three times.

"However, the underlying figures indicate there is still room for further improvements to stop the sales first time, every time."

The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) said a 3.3% year-on-year dip in alcohol consumption recorded in 2006 was the largest for 15 years.

HM Revenue and Customs data, checked against sales information from BBPA members, suggests drinkers got through an average of 8.9 litres of alcohol per person in 2006.

That compared with 9.2 litres in 2005.

The figures are based on pure alcohol content across all different drink types.