Cheap drinks promotions such as happy hours and price discounts should to be banned in an attempt to address growing evidence of rising drunken violence, MPs will say today.

Police forces are diverting significant resources into alcohol-related crime at the expense of other offences, the Home Affairs Select Committee will report.

In a major report on policing, it sounded a warning of the growing problems caused by changes to the licensing laws in 2005, as well as raising a raft of concerns about other areas of police work.

The committee is calling for cheap drink promotions to be banned as part of a move to make the alcohol trade’s voluntary standards compulsory with a more effective inspection regime and penalties for breaches. In 2007, alcohol was 69 per cent more affordable in Britain than in 1980.

The report highlighted a 25 per cent increase in serious violent crimes committed between 3am and 6am, and pointed to British Crime Survey figures showing 45 per cent of victims of violence say their assailant was under the influence of alcohol.

The committee expressed concerned that, as one force put it, “the whole focus of officer shift patterns is to deploy sufficient resources at weekends to cope with alcohol-fuelled disorder, and football violence”. Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, has said that alcohol is a factor in over 30 per cent of city centre arrests.

It urged the Home Office to deal better with the fact that public expectations of the police are not being met, saying for police should be more visible and more responsive.

Its report also said pressure to meet quantitative Home Office targets has often caused officers to prioritise trivial offences. It adds that 7.1 per cent of the 1.447 million “offences brought to justice” in the year to March 2008 were cannabis warnings. Complex fraud trials, by contrast, are not part of the target

Foreign nationals take longer and cost more for police forces to process. and the government should give greater assistance to forces in areas experiencing rapid population change, it added.

The committee expressed concern at the “large number” of murder suspects released on bail, and supports changes to the bail laws.

It says some forces were increasingly occupied with gun and knife crime — an area where perception far exceeds reality but true figures are very difficult to come by. The committee has embarked on a dedicated inquiry into knife crime, to report in the new year.

It criticised the lack of progress made in reducing police bureaucracy but welcomed plans for shorter crime-recording forms and new processes for stop and account.

It said proposals put forward by the Home Office to restructure police authorities may undermine partnership working between the police and local authorities.

Public dissatisfaction with the police is high, with only 48 per cent believing the officers will be there when needed and 53 per cent thinking their local forces does a good or excellent job in 2007/08. Falling crime rates have not resulted in a boost in public confidence about crime.

British Crime Survey statistics show a steady fall in actual crime levels, which are down 45 per cent since 1995. Some 65 per cent of people interviewed for the 2007/08 survey thought crime in the country had increased in the last two years.

The report also found a a “gap” in provision for tackling serious and organised crime. It added it found it difficult to assess whether the service has the capacity to respond to a major terrorist attack or manage large-scale events such as the Olympics.

It reveals a report on Olympic preparedness commissioned by the Mayor of London advised in June 2008 that “security plans are at a very early stage and significantly behind the rest of the planning”.

Keith Vaz, chairman of the committee said: “We cannot have on one hand a world of alcohol promotions for profit that fuels surges of crime and disorder, and on the other the police diverting all their resources to cope with it.

“Police need to be given the means to focus their resources on the real life priorities of the communities they serve - from cutting the reams of red tape officers deal to ensuring that they have access to simple time saving solutions like hand-held PDAs."

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