Youth alcohol action plan must tackle young people's attitudes

The plan revealed a youth alcohol action plan would be published in the spring to tackle the problem of under-age drinkers.

The government has said the plan will look at alcohol education in schools, tackle parental alcohol misuse and consider the case for further action on alcohol advertising.

But Tim Bateman, senior policy advisor at crime reduction charity Nacro, said this would not be enough. "They may be reasonable things to do but they're only a fairly small part of the overall picture," he said. "The action plan needs to recognise there appears to be a difference in attitudes towards alcohol in this country to those elsewhere."

Bateman said neighbouring countries such as France also had easy access to cheap alcohol, but did not appear to have the same problem of young people binge drinking. "There is a cultural issue," he said. "Changing the price of alcohol or putting restrictions in place won't tackle why young people are drinking in the first place."

Rosie Chadwick, director of prevention services at charity Crime Concern, said educating young people over the dangers of alcohol would be important in combating teen drinking.

"We're putting together a national survey of young people involved in Positive Futures' attitudes to drinking," she said. "It is emerging that they don't understand the dangers of it, so education is important."

The Children's Plan also pledged to create a youth crime action plan later this year. Bateman said he hoped this plan would raise the age of criminal responsibility, which would tie in with a number of goals set by the government.

"It would be consistent with learning from our European neighbours, while ensuring we reduce the number of young people who are coming into the criminal justice system," said Bateman.