Parents of underage children found drinking should enter voluntary agreements with youth workers in an attempt to tackle their child’s use of alcohol, the Home Secretary is expected to say today.

Jacqui Smith will call for underage drinking to be added to the areas where a parenting contract can be used to help families facing difficulties with their children.

Ms Smith’s proposal is the latest Home Office measure to tackle underage drinking and the wider problem of alcohol abuse and drunken behaviour on the streets.

Police are also to be given powers to confiscate alcohol from young people who drink in public places, which will end the anomaly that forbids under 18s from buying alcohol but does not stop them from drinking. The move will mean that children can legally drink alcohol only at home where they are more likely to be supervised.

Ms Smith will said: “If children are caught drinking in public they’ll have those drinks confiscated. I fully support communities’ efforts to stamp out underage, alcohol-fuelled disorder and the harm that it causes.”

Meanwhile, drinkers could be in for a nasty shock from the Chancellor’s Budget on March 12. He is under pressure to increase tax on alcohol by 30 per cent – meaning £2.50 on a bottle of whisky and £1 on a bottle of wine.

Under Ms Smith’s proposals parents whose children are caught with alcohol would be asked by youth offending teams or the police to agree to a voluntary parenting agreement to tackle the problem. At present parenting contracts usually involve the parents of a child involved or likely to become involved in criminal conduct antisocial behaviour and truanting.

Ms Smith, who is making her first speech on alcohol abuse since becoming Home Secretary last year, will say that underage drinking should on its own be an issue that could be dealt with by a parenting contract. If the parents are unwilling to cooperate voluntarily, the police or youth offending team could apply to the courts for a parenting order. Under an order parents are put on courses aimed at helping them to tackle their children’s misbehaviour. They are also required to exercise control of their child. A parent breaking the order can be taken to court and fined up to £1,000 or given a community order.

Ms Smith will also outline other measures that the Government is taking to tackle alcohol-related crime. But she is awaiting the outcome of a review on supermarket promotions that sell cheap alcohol before deciding if the Government can take action.

It is understood that ministers want to stop alcohol being sold as a loss leader – below the wholesale price – but they are braced for opposition from shops who argue that the move would be anticompetitive.

Ms Smith’s speech comes as the drinks industry is becoming increasingly nervous at the Government’s approach towards tackling alcohol abuse and repeated calls for it to take action.

The latest moves to tackle underage drinking are part of a wider strategy aimed at dealing with problem drinking including 18 to 24-year-old binge drinkers and adult drinkers who do not realise that their habits are damaging their health.

Police have run campaigns to tackle underage drinking in which test purchases are made. The last campaign, last summer, found that only 20 out of 2,683 businesses sold alcohol on three separate occasions to teenagers.

But there is concern that under 18s are getting older people to purchase drink for them, and one finding from a Home Office study in 2004 of underage drinking is worrying ministers: it found that 48 per cent of 10 to 17-year-olds who had drunk alcohol in the past year said that they had obtained the drink from their parents.

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