Today at midnight, the law that allows the pubs in England to apply for 24 hour- drinking in some areas of the country will come in service. As a BBC survey announces, 60.326 stores will be allowed to sell alcohol for a longer time than they used to.

The licensing Minister James Purnell fully reassures that this law is also backed up by a more aggressive one that refers to violence induced by alcohol. With this law, Mr. Purnell says the police will have more power to conduct the arrests, and there is also expected a rise in the number of prosecutions.
The law will be stronger on the ones who will sell alcoholic beverages to minors and everyone who will do so can be at risk to have their license suspended.

"It is absolutely clear that the current system has not worked", Purnell says.
"Let's not penalize the majority of responsible drinkers because of the crimes of a minority. There should be a very clear principle- that if people are not causing harm to others, government should get out of their personal lives".

The BBC survey also attests that 1.121 firms will have 24-hour licenses and 359 of that are pubs and clubs. Other 60.326 establishments have extensions in hours to sell alcohol; the part of England that has the largest number of approved licenses is South East England, with 10.500 locations.

Culture Secretary Theresa May said the Government's plans are absurd. They should concentrate on "doing something about binge drinking before looking at extending the licensing hours", in her opinion. This change "will lead to disorder", Mrs. May states.

As a reply, the Minister said: "at last, in this country, adults are going to be treated like grown-ups and given a little bit of choice about having a social life beyond 11 o'clock at night".