Pubs to open 24 hours on Dec 31

Pubs are to stay open all night on New Year's Eve in a temporary relaxation of licensing laws and a boost for revellers.

Drinkers in England and Wales will this year be able to carry on drinking without hearing the last orders bell before Auld Lang Syne.

The Government, which has long pledged to review Britain's outdated licensing laws, hopes the move will appease younger voters disillusioned by the failure so far to introduce a continental culture of bars being open 24 hours a day.

While the news will be seen as long overdue by pub owners and licensees, it will outrage residents living near pubs and bars who will have little time to oppose what they fear may mean 36-hour noise and drunkenness on their doorsteps.

A committee of MPs is today expected to approve plans for a blanket relaxation of licensing laws for pubs to open for 36 hours continuously for New Year's Eve. Few pubs, however, are expected to take advantage of the change.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport was not due to tackle the issue until next year, and many in the pub industry believe that if late-night drinking becomes a permanent feature of the capital it will bring an end to "binge drinking" and alcoholrelated crime and violence.

A recent Home Office report revealed that one in six 999 calls involves a drink-related incident, a quarter of those arrested are drunk and alcohol plays a significant part in 75 per cent of assaults.

A similar plan ran out of time last year amid speculation that the Government had chosen to prioritise the Queen's Golden Jubilee next year.

The Culture Department must receive clearance from the Commons deregulation and regulatory reform committee. It received a frosty response when it approached MPs in the summer about extending New Year opening.

At the time, the committee's chairman, Peter Pike, said he had been placed "in an impossible position" and cast doubt on whether there was enough time to implement the change. It is now understood that the committee has decided to let the Government push through the order in the first week of December after demanding a change in procedures covering requests from residents seeking to limit opening hours.

Last month the minister responsible for licensing, Kim Howells, said the blight of foot-and-mouth and the September terrorist attacks had made it even more important for the hospitality industry that opening hours are extended at New Year.

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