6 February 2008

Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, joined GMTV to discuss a crackdown on under-age drinking in public.

She talked with GMTV’s Fiona Phillips following an interview with a mother who said her 16-year-old was out of control and that parenting contracts "are a complete waste of time and will do nothing to solve the problem."

Below is the transcript of the Home Secretary’s interview:

FIONA PHILLIPS: You’re a mum of two sons yourself aren’t you, so that poor lady – she sounded like a decent mum - is at her wit’s end. How would parenting contracts, the sort we’re talking about today, stop underage drinking, how would they help her out?

JACQUI SMITH: Parenting is tough Fiona, but it does make a difference. When you’ve got good parenting, it does stop kids from getting into trouble.

FP: She seems to have done all she can, but he’s had community charges, he’s been doing community service, he’s been in trouble with the police – none of it has worked. So how would this measurement make a difference?

JS: Which is why what parenting contract is about is not just saying: "Here are the rules, you’ve got kids stick by it." But actually: "Here’s a deal: we expect you to keep your child under control. But we know it’s difficult – here’s some parenting support to help you do it. Now we expect you to take that parenting support - to do your bit – but in exchange, you do need to take responsibility for your child." So there’s help, but there’s also parents living up to their responsibilities. And of course it has to happen early. That’s why I’m saying, for example, if children are being picked up frequently on the streets – drinking when they shouldn’t be – parenting contracts, which have worked in other areas with respect to anti-social behaviour, might be a good answer to actually getting parents to take responsibility, and to stop giving children the drink in the first place.

FP: But parents don’t usually give children the drink…

JS: Well, actually, unfortunately, some of the research that we’ve done suggests that sometimes children are getting drink from their parents. So, all of us have got a responsibility here to make sure that kids aren’t getting the drinks in the first place and aren’t out on the streets causing trouble.

FP: So a parenting contract is to help parents out, like the lady we just spoke who was so scared of her son and friends. She says parenting contracts aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. So what if you had a parent who didn’t want to cooperate?

JS: Well, the first thing to say is I do think you need to step in early with these. I don’t know if that lady has actually had the sort of parenting support that goes alongside a parenting contract. In the end though, I’m not willing to put up with young people on our streets drinking, with then the sort of resultant trouble that that quite often causes. Which is why I’m saying, I think the police need to be able to take alcohol off young people. We had a campaign last year where the police took 6,500 pints worth of alcohol off young people. We’re starting that again in the next few weeks. That’s a very clear message that you shouldn’t be drinking, and you certainly shouldn’t be drinking on the streets and causing worry and concern for neighbourhoods, and potentially getting into trouble.

FP: But we all know that, that’s common sense isn’t it. But how do you physically expect parents to track their teenage children when they go out at night? You can tell them alcohol is bad. You can tell them until you’re blue in the face. But how do you physically stop them?

JS: Well, when they get to 16, you probably can’t physically stop them. But you need earlier on to have had the sort of parenting support that means that you know how to set boundaries – you’re actually setting the right behaviour earlier on. And actually, we also need to make sure that that off-license isn’t selling vodka to an under 18-year-old. And that’s why we’ve done these sort of sting operations, where we send people in to try and test whether or not shops are selling to underage drinkers. We’re actually seeing fewer that are selling to underage drinkers. But where they are, we need to take action against those as well.

FP: But when do you take action, how do you know a child found out on the streets on a Tuesday night – that might be the first time he’s done it – so how do you know? For all we know Tony Blair could well be in the same position – Euan was found flat on his back in Leicester Square at one time. So where do you intervene, how early or how late, how do you do it?

JS: Well what I want to be sure about is that the police, who are probably the people who are night after night potentially, picking up the same young people, have the powers and discretion to be able to use in a way that they think is appropriate. Police officers have said to me, they need to be able to take drink off young people. They need to be able to make sure that where that is happening consistently, parents also are brought into the equation and made to take some responsibility. We need to be confident that the few dodgy off-licences where young people are getting their drink from, there’s action we can take against those. So there’s lots of us who have a responsibility here. I’ve got a responsibility in Government to lead, to be clear about the harm that alcohol can cause. The disruption it can cause to our communities. That’s what I’m setting out today. But all of us I think together can make a difference.

FP: You have a teenage boy - what have you told him? It’s difficult, do you know where he goes out at night?

JS: Parenting is tough. We all know that don’t we? None of us who are parents wants to sit here and say everything about our kid is right, because we know it is difficult. But we also know I think, and I think people have been responding this morning and saying this, is that parents are part of the solution, they do have to be responsible for their children, but where they need help to do that, we’ll provide that as well. It’s that deal – support with your parenting, but you’ve got to take your responsibilities seriously.

FP: All right, thank you very much. I do hope you don’t bring take-away kebabs home to those children because they’re not good for them Jacqui.

JS: You can’t believe everything you read in the newspapers about me.