A “tipping point” has been reached where more 13-year-olds in Britain have drunk alcohol than those who have not, the Home Secretary said yesterday.

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, also criticised young, adult binge drinkers with an “appetite for destruction”, fighting on the streets and damaging property. But she indicated that the Government’s review of 24-hour licensing is unlikely to lead to significant changes to the law or a reversal of policy.

“I do not expect the impact of the changes to licensing hours on crime and disorder to be as dramatic as some have suggested,” Ms Smith said.

She announced that auditors were monitoring pubs, club, off-licences and supermarkets to check whether they were abiding by self-regulation codes set by the alcohol industry.

The study, being conducted by KPMG, is focusing on cut-price drink promotions in supermarkets and special offers in bars such as “buy two glasses of wine, get the rest of the bottle free”.

Ministers have still not ruled out changing the law to force retailers to act responsibly, particularly when they sell alcohol as a loss leader. Ms Smith admitted that competition laws may make such a move difficult to introduce, but she said: “It can’t be right that you can still find promotions for 50p shots until midnight or ‘all you can drink for a tenner’ nights.

“People are increasingly asking whether the approach to alcohol sales, marketing and promotions is as responsible as it needs to be.”

In her first big speech on alcohol abuse since becoming Home Secretary, Ms Smith focused on underage drinkers and binge drinking. She said: “We have now reached a worrying tipping point where more 13-year-olds have drunk alcohol than have not. This is clearly a cause for concern.

“There is alcohol education in schools, but we need to make sure this is as effective as possible in alerting children to the dangers of drinking.”

The figure she mentioned equates to nearly 350,000 13-year-old drinkers in England and Wales, under data from the Office for National Statistics, which recorded 690,000 children of that age in 2006.

She rounded on parents who provide large amounts of alcohol for their children and demanded thay they take greater personal responsibility. “Nearly half of the alcohol obtained by young people appears to come from the family home. It is clear that parents have to hear the message as well. The idea that you can hand your kids a six-pack of lager and tell them to disappear for the evening – with no thought to the consequences – is frankly baffling to me.”

Ms Smith announced that she would look at amending existing laws, dating from 1997, which allow police to confiscate alcohol in public places if they suspect a person is under 18.

The Home Office claimed that the police had been prevented from using the law because they needed to prove they had “reasonable suspicion” that the children were about to consume the alcohol. Parenting contracts are to be extended to cover parents whose children have been found drinking, as revealed in The Times yesterday. A scheme in which offenders with alcohol-related convictions are referred to counsellors is to be extended to ten more areas.

A new enforcement campaign, costing £875,000, will take place during this month’s half-term holidays in 175 areas of the country to confiscate alcohol. Later in the year a new multimillion-pound advertising campaign is to be launched to illustrate the dangers of binge drinking and raise awareness of recommended alcohol intake levels, Ms Smith said.

Deborah Cameron, chief executive of the drug and alcohol charity Addaction, said the proposed fine-tuning of the confiscation laws would make no difference to underage drinking. “The police already take booze away from young people and fine them, but then nothing else happens,” she said.

Jeremy Beadles, chief executive of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, welcomed the Home Secretary’s comments and said that police should be encouraged to use their existing powers.

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