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The government is set to issue guidance to parents in the UK to tell them at what age their children can start drinking. The move is part of an attempt to change Britain’s booze culture.The advice includes information for parents on sensible alcohol levels for young people and how much supervision they require.

Chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson is to produce the guidelines in response to mounting alarm at the extent of under-age drinking in public and the extent of binge drinking amongst young people.

The guidelines form part of a package of measures, which were announced today to give police new powers when tackling teenage drinking and urging pubs and retailers to request ID to ensure customers are over 18.

The “three strikes and you’re out” policy has now been changed to just “two strikes”, which means that any pub, club or retailer caught selling alcohol twice to under-age drinkers will face prosecution.

Children, Schools and Families Secretary Ed Balls said: “Tougher enforcement powers are needed to tackle under-age binge drinking, but enforcement measures alone are not the solution. We need a culture change about drinking with everyone from parents, the alcohol industry and young people all taking more responsibility.”

It will now be an offence for anyone under-18 to persistently possess alcohol in public, though it is unclear how many times a child would have to be caught before being defined as a “persistent drinker”.

The Home Office suggests that “persistent” would be defined as two or three times a week but admitted that they could not be certain until the details were ironed out.

“Groups of under-18s drinking in public are an all too familiar sight. This type of drinking increases youth antisocial behaviour and crime, puts young people in vulnerable situations and I want to put a stop to it,” said Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary.

Opposition politicians and Alcohol Concern have criticised the proposals and said that criminalising young people was not the way to tackle under-age drinking.

Lib Dem analysis of hospital admissions show that, although the number of under-14s admitted to hospital each year because of the toxic effects of alcohol has fallen, the number admitted because of mental and behavioural disorders caused by alcohol rose from 1,657 in 1998-99 to 2,120 in 2006-07.