The UK Licensing Act 2003: Measuring Its Impact on Crime and Disorder in Five Urban Areas

This paper discusses an evaluation of changes in the Licensing Act 2003 (LA03) on crime and disorder in five English case study areas. The LA03 paved the way for pubs, clubs, supermarkets and other outlets to sell alcohol for up to 24 hours and came into effect in November 2005. This Home Office-funded evaluation was undertaken between October 2005 and March 2007.
The methodology included site visits, participant observation, interviews with bar and door staff and the use of Geographical Information Systems to identify pub clusters and areas of concentrated drinking. Levels of violence against the person, criminal damage, sexual offences and disorder were identified prior to and following the implementation of the LA03. Changes in these were measured for town centres as a whole, in streets with a high density of drinking establishments and within individual pubs and clubs. Ambulance data and Hospital Accident and Emergency admissions were also scrutinized.
Particular attention was paid to changes in the geographical distribution and timing of offences and incidents following implementation of LA03. The extent to which changes in the LA03 were accompanied by both temporal and geographical displacement of crime and disorder was examined. The paper concludes with an assessment of how far the LA03 actually resulted in changes in pub hours and how far it is possible to link these to changing patterns of crime and disorder in town centres.