Full figures for the first year of relaxed licensing laws are yet to be published, but early statistics suggest that longer drinking hours have not produced a surge in alcohol-fuelled violence.

There appears to have been no increase in the overall level of violent crime and criminal damage nor a change of timing of offences as a result of the November 2005 change in licensing laws.

Separate figures show a fall in the number of attacks taking place in or outside licensed premises, which is probably a result of landlords taking much tougher action against drunks and troublemakers.

This decline may, however, simply conceal a trend towards violence being displaced from the immediate vicinity of a pub or club to other parts of town and city centres.

Ministers, police and doctors are still keen for licensed premises to use unbreakable glasses so that in the event of violence, the severity of injuries – particularly to the face – will be limited.

Researchers from the Violence Research Group at the University Dental Hospital and School, Cardiff, analysed 152,000 claims made to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) between 1996 and 1998. They found 15,217 related to assaults in licensed premises, of which 3,706 involved injuries specifically caused by glasses and bottles.

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