Figures show parents allow children under 14 to drink alcohol at home

Parents are ignoring medical advice by letting their children drink, the survey of more than 1,000 parents by Churchill Home Insurance showed.

Dr Matthew Smith, Portsmouth City Council’s acting director of public health, said: ‘I can understand parents having good intentions and wanting to supervise children’s first experience of alcohol but it is important they wait until an appropriate age.

‘Despite what parents believe, starting young people drinking at a young age does not encourage a responsible attitude to alcohol.

‘In Portsmouth we do have high levels of alcohol-related disease and early death.’