The Portman Group has questioned the government's stance on underage drinking following a dramatic fall in prosecutions.
Government figures, released by the Portman Group, last month, showed that the number of under-18s convicted or cautioned from buying alcohol had fallen from 276 in 1997, to 61 in 2001.
While admitting that the fall was an undeniable trend, a Home Office spokesman said the government had not gone soft on under-age drinking: "The reason for the fall is the rise in alternative responses to under-age drinking such fixed-penalty notices, final warnings and action plan orders. Many of these measures are not counted in the convictions and cautions statistics."
The Portman Group, however, is unconvinced: "These measures were introduced quite recently and the falling off started sometime before the fixed-penalty notice came in. This explanation does sweep things under the carpet a little bit," said spokeswoman Kate Winstanley.
Jim Minton, also from The Portman Group, said: "We would be interested to see some information on this, to see the effect of these new measures on young people, and how they are being enforced. The fact is that young people are still getting the alcohol."
The shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin told The Publican Newspaper: "We don't deny that efforts are being made to tackle under-age drinking, but the fact remains that it is a huge social problem and that nothing like enough is being done to curb it."
Last month, Mr Letwin criticised the government, saying they had virtually given up enforcing the law on under-age drinking.