More than one million people were attacked by drunken thugs last year as the first official analysis of round-the-clock drinking revealed increasing public disorder in the early hours.

Alcohol-fuelled violence rose in the first full year of relaxed licensing laws, with a particular jump in the hours after midnight as clubs and pubs stayed open later.

While crime fell around the traditional 11pm closing time, the British Crime Survey figures indicate that longer licensing hours simply shifted the disorder to the early morning.

When the law was changed the Government suggested that ending the 11pm closing time would result in less violence as people would leave bars at different times. But police have had to deploy more officers to cope with the thousands drinking in town centres after midnight.
Yesterday’s figures also disclose that offences of causing death by dangerous driving or while under the influence of alcohol or drugs had reached their highest level for 30 years, with 462 cases in 2006-07.

On the day that the figures were published, Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, admitted that she had smoked cannabis while a student at Oxford more than 25 years ago. But, as Ms Smith was disclosing her youthful indiscretion, ministers and officials were focusing on the need to tackle drink-fuelled street disorder.

Paul Wiles, head of research at the Home Office, said: “When we brought in the Licensing Act there was a lot of worry that we would encourage mayhem and murder. The figures show that has not happened.”

But the findings, based on figures from 30 police forces in England and Wales, show that there were 940,522 serious violent crimes, woundings, assaults, harassments and criminal damage offences committed between 6pm and 6am in the year after the licensing changes – up 7,000 on the previous year. In the period between 9pm and midnight the crimes fell by 1 per cent to 319,846, but offences rose by 2 per cent to 242,000 between midnight and 3am and surged by 22 per cent to 57,700 between 3am and 6am.

Assaults with no injury rose by 22 per cent to 5,220 between 3am and 6am, harassment by 45 per cent to 6,500, criminal damage by 14 per cent to 27,200 and less serious wounding by 26 per cent to 17,500.

The Home Office said that although there had been a sharp increase in violent crime in the early hours, these offences accounted for only 8 per cent of serious offences committed during drinking hours. But the figures increase pressure on the Government and its approach to alcohol as they came just hours after a study from St Thomas’ Hospital in London disclosed that alcohol-related visits to A&E departments had trebled since the licensing reforms.

Gerry Sutcliffe, the Licensing Minister, said last night: “Any increase in alcohol-related crime at any time of day is unwelcome but these statistics must be seen in context. Overall, serious incidents have fallen and been spread more evenly throughout the night.”

When the most sweeping reforms to the licensing laws since the First World War were introduced, ministers insisted that it would encourage a change in drinking habits, with the hope that it would lead to more of a continental-style café culture.

Hazel Blears, then a Home Office minister and now the Communities Secretary, said at the time: “We are bringing in flexible licensing hours. At the moment you can have 4,000 people coming out of pubs and clubs at the same time. They’re looking for transport. They’ve had a drink. That’s when we see the fighting that goes on. That’s what we mean to stop.”

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said the figures supported the Conservative proposal to pilot relaxed drinking laws before introducing them across the country. “That a separate analysis has shown that night crime increased after the introduction of 24-hour drinking is yet more evidence why the Government should have listened to our call instead of recklessly unleashing it,” he said.

The annual British Crime Survey, which was published yesterday on the same day that the police figures were released, showed that violent crime rose by 5 per cent, with young men most at risk of being attacked. Vandalism rose by 10 per cent to more than 2.9 million offences, most being attacks on vehicles.

Overall, crime in the government survey rose by 3 per cent to 11.2 million while offences recorded by the 43 police forces in England and Wales fell 2 per cent to 5.4 million. Only 1.4 million crimes were detected and just 47 per cent of those resulted in charges. Violent crime involving injury rose by 3 per cent from 1.227 million to 1.27 million, and with no injury by 7 per cent from 1.1 million to 1.2 million.

The risk of being a victim of crime rose marginally but was still considerably lower than the peak reported by the British Crime Survey in 1995.

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