Designation Orders: Alcohol Consumption in Public Places
'CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND POLICE ACT 2001 ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION IN PUBLIC
Chief Officers of Police
Chief Executives of Local Authorities
I am writing to let you know about new measures to restrict anti-social drinking in public places which will be available from 1 September 2001. This letter is intended to raise awareness of these new measures and to provide some explanation of them.
The new measures
On 1 September, sections 12-16 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 come into force. These provide local authorities with an adoptive power to restrict anti-social public drinking in designated public places and they provide the police with the power to enforce this restriction. Also on 1 September the Local Authorities (Alcohol Consumption in Designated Public Places) Regulations 2001 come into force. These set out the procedures to be followed by local authorities in designating public places for this purpose. A copy of the Regulations accompanies this letter.
These new statutory powers will replace the Home Office model byelaw relating to the consumption of intoxicating liquor in designated public places. From 1 September, local authorities who wish to place a restriction on public drinking within their area, where this is associated with nuisance or annoyance to members of the public, or disorder, should consider whether to make an order under section 13 of the Act rather than proceeding with a byelaw.
Which authority?
For the purposes of these provisions of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001, the local authorities with the power to make a designation order under section 13 is defined in section 16 of the Act. They are:
- in England, unitary authorities and district councils so far as they are not unitary authorities;
- in Wales, county councils or county borough councils.
In this context, unitary authorities are defined as county councils so far as they are councils for an area for which there are no district councils; district councils in areas for which there are no county councils; London borough councils; the Common Council of the City of London in its capacity as a local authority; and the Council of the Isles of Scilly.
A new offence: section 12
Section 12 of the Act provides new police powers to deal with anti-social drinking in areas that have been designated for this purpose by the relevant local authority under section 13 of the Act. The police will have the power to require a person, in such a place, not to drink alcohol in that place where the officer reasonably believes that the person is, has or intends to do so, and to surrender any alcohol or alcohol containers (other than sealed containers) in the person~Rs possession. It will not be an offence to drink alcohol in a designated public place, but failure to comply with an officer~Rs requirements in respect of public drinking or surrender of alcohol, without reasonable excuse, will be an arrestable offence.
Designation orders: local authorities procedures: section 13
There is no intention that the provisions of the 2001 Act should lead to a comprehensive ban on drinking in the open air. Accordingly, section 13 allows local authorities to designate areas for this purpose only where they are satisfied that nuisance or annoyance to the public or disorder have been associated with public drinking in that place. Where there have been no such problems, a designation order under section 13 will not be appropriate.
It is for the local authority to be satisfied that public nuisance, annoyance or disorder has been associated with public drinking in the area concerned and that a designation order under section 13 is appropriate. The Local Authorities (Alcohol Consumption in Designated Public Places) Regulations do not place a requirement on the local authority to conduct a formal assessment, over a given period, of the nature of the problem, as was the case with the byelaws procedure. Whether or not a designation order is appropriate will be a matter for local judgement, based on the circumstances applying.
The local authority will want to satisfy itself that these new powers are not being used disproportionately or in an arbitrary fashion which could be the case if one, isolated incident led to a designation order. Clearly there should be evidence of an existing problem, with an assessment as to the likelihood that the problem will continue unless these powers are adopted. Against this background, it is possible that a single, serious incident might be sufficient to justify adoption of the powers.
Consultation
The Regulations require local authorities to consult with the police prior to making a designation order (Regulation 3(1)(a)). This is to seek the views of the police on the nature of the problem and the appropriateness of adopting the section 12 powers to respond to it, recognising that it will be the police who will have the responsibility for enforcing the resulting restrictions on public drinking.
Regulation 3 sets out the other bodies who must be consulted before a designation order is made. These are:
- any parish or community council covering all or part of the public place to be designated. In addition, local authorities should be open to receive representations from parish or community councils in their area, relating to the designation of a public place within the area of the parish or community council;
- the police and neighbouring local authorities, parish or community councils where a designation order covers an area on the boundaries with that neighbouring authority. This is to allow for consideration to be given to the consequences of the designation order on the neighbouring authority (such as the possible displacement of anti-social public drinking problems) before the designation order is made;
- licensees within the area or who may be affected by the designation order;
- the owners or occupiers of any land that may be identified in a designation order. There may well be occasions when it is impossible to identify or find the owners of particular land or property, so Regulation 3(2) does not place an absolute requirement on local authorities in this instance. It requires local authorities to take all reasonable steps to consult land owners.
Publicity
Regulations 5-9 cover publicity requirements. Regulations 5 and 6 are concerned with advance publicity. By virtue of regulation 4, local authorities will be under a duty to consider any representations received as a result of this publicity.
Regulation 7 concerns publicity once a decision has been made to designate an order under section 13 of the Act. Regulation 8 sets out the requirement to erect signs to ensure that the public (including visitors to the area) are made aware that restrictions on public drinking may apply. As was previously the case under the Home Office byelaws guidance, signs to indicate the effect of a designation order should be clear and unambiguous and not conflict with or obscure traffic signs. They should be placed at the approaches to designated areas and repeated within them, and the local highway authority should be consulted.
Council procedures
Regulation 10 makes an amendment to the Local Authorities (Functions and Responsibilities) (England) Regulations 2000. The effect of this is that this function will not become a function of the executive under the terms of the Local Government Act 2000 but will be one that remains with the council. In all normal circumstances, the local authority may wish to ensure that decisions relating to designation orders are made by the full council or a committee of the council, as opposed to being delegated to an officer of the council.
Existing public drinking byelaws
By virtue of section 15 of the 2001 Act, existing public drinking byelaws will cease to have effect once the area is designated in accordance with section 13. We would expect local authorities who have adopted the model byelaw on public drinking to replace this, at a suitable opportunity, with a designation order under section 13. The local authority will need to follow the consultation and publicity requirements set out in the accompanying Regulations in order to do so. The practical effect of doing so will be to enable the police to enforce the public drinking restriction through the use of the powers conferred by section 12 of the Act, once the area is designated.
Any relevant local authority byelaw which is not replaced by a section 13 designation order will, by virtue of section 15 of the Act, lapse after a period of five years commencing on 1 September 2001.
Confiscation of Alcohol (Young Persons) Act 1997
Section 29 of the 2001 Act, which also comes into force on 1 September, brings into effect an amendment to section 1(1) of the Confiscation of Alcohol (Young Persons) Act 1997. This is necessary to ensure consistency between the powers conferred by section 12 of the 2001 Act and section 1 of the 1997 Act, so that the police are not faced with the possibility of implementing two different sets of powers in relation to people under 18 who are drinking or who intend to drink in a place designated under section 13 of the 2001 Act.
Monitoring arrangements
To ensure that the public have full access to information about designation orders made under section 13 of the Act, Regulation 9 requires all local authorities to send a copy of any designation order made to the Secretary of State. These should be sent to*:
Anti-Social Behaviour & Alcohol Unit
Home Office
4th Floor, Peel Building (SW Qtr)
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
Tel: 020 7035 0051 / 020 7035 0066
Email: frances.riches@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk / joanne.french@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
* Note: These details have updated since the original letter was published as the originally published recipient is no longer in post
The Home Office will maintain a list of all areas designated under the 2001 Act on the Home Office website. In addition, local authorities may wish to consider publicising designation orders made on their own websites, in addition to the publicity requirements of the accompanying Regulations, to help to ensure full public accessibility to this information.
JONATHAN DUKE-EVANS
Last update: Monday, August 13, 2007