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Police and Crime Commissioner Joy Allen is backing a national campaign raising awareness of alcohol harm and the part it plays in crime.
This year’s Alcohol Awareness Week 2025 (7-13 July) focuses on the theme ‘Alcohol in the Workplace’ and aims to shine alight on the risks of a workplace drinking culture and the consequences of harmful drinking on health, wellbeing and relationships.
The County Durham and Darlington PCC is Joint Portfolio Lead for Addictions and Substance Misuse on behalf of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) and is campaigning nationally for earlier intervention to tackle alcohol-related crime and disorder and to protect road users from drink and drug drivers.
Addressing alcohol harm is a priority in the Commissioner’s new Police, Crime and Justice Plan under the Safer People Safer Places theme, with the PCC pledging to work with the Chief Constable and partners to raise awareness of alcohol, drugs and gambling-related crime and harm.
The PCC is committed to developing a local alcohol strategy and has also pledged to work with local councils to introduce Cumulative Impact Zones which limit licences in areas where there are already a high density of licensed premises contributing to increased crime and anti-social behaviour (ASB).
Nationally, around 10 million people are regularly drinking alcohol in ways that can harm health and wellbeing and negatively influence their work productivity.
The Commissioner is already working with businesses to expand the roll out of workplace alcohol and drug testing – especially in the haulage industry – to protect lives on the region’s roads.
It came after 80% of residents in her recent consultation ranked drink and drug driving as their top priority for roads policing.
Police and Crime Commissioner Joy Allen said: “While I fully support Alcohol Awareness Week, I think we should be taking every opportunity to remind people of the risks of excessive drinking every week. Anything we can do to encourage the public to consider whether they are drinking responsibly is a positive.
“The North-East has some of the worst rates of alcohol-harm in the UK, with around one million people drinking at levels which raise their risk of alcohol-related illness. These families and individuals need help.
“Through my work, I have witnessed the devastating impact of alcohol harm on crime and victims and the immense pressure it places on our public services. We must do more to protect local people from dying from unnecessary alcohol-related illnesses and committing crimes such as violence, theft and criminal damage that make our streets unsafe and cost taxpayers millions of pounds every year to police.
“To build a safer, stronger, healthier and economic resilient country, we must do all we can to support our people to live healthier, safer and more prosperous lives.”
Alcohol is a factor in three in 10 violent crimes in Durham but nationally over half of all violent crime is linked to alcohol.
The costs of crime and disorder related to alcohol are estimated to cost £812.4m in the North-East alone and are linked to 700,000 alcohol-related violent incidents a year.
Concerningly, 40% of secondary school-age children have been involved in some form of violence because of alcohol.
UK charity Alcohol Change UK, which leads Alcohol Awareness Week, said several work-related factors can increase the risk of alcohol harm. These include engaging in shift work, working in challenging physical conditions, experiencing personal conflict and stress and working from home with more flexibility and less supervision of hours.
For more information on the awareness week visit: https://alcoholchange.org.uk/get-involved/campaigns/alcohol-awareness-week-1.
Ends
It has been an absolute privilege to host the Knife Angel in Newton Aycliffe throughout June.
New security equipment has been funded by the PCC as part of her mission to crack down on countryside crime.
The extra patrols will be targeted in locations which have the highest prevalence of knife crime, serious violence and ASB.
