The Licensing Act 2003, which came into force on 24 November 2005, consolidated the many laws into a single Act. This allowed pubs in England and Wales to apply to the local council for the opening hours of their choice. It was argued that this would end the concentration of violence around 11.30 pm, when people had to leave the pub, making policing easier. In practice, alcohol-related hospital admissions rose following the change in the law, with alcohol involved in 207,800 admissions in 2006/7. Critics claimed that these laws would lead to "24-hour drinking". By the time the law came into effect, 60,326 establishments had applied for longer hours and 1,121 had applied for a licence to sell alcohol 24 hours a day. However nine months later many pubs had not changed their hours, although some stayed open longer at the weekend, but rarely beyond 1:00 am.

When did the Licensing Act 2003 come into effect?