Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson said an alcohol-free childhood is the healthiest and best option.

“Across England, half a million children between the ages of 11 and 15 years will have been drunk in the past four weeks,” Donaldson said.

“The science is clear. Drinking, particularly at a young age, a lack of parental supervision, exposing children to drink-fuelled events and failing to engage with them as they grow up are the root causes from which our country’s serious alcohol problem has developed.”

Publishing guidance for parents on children and alcohol, he said if children aged between 15 and 17 years are drinking, it should be no more than one day a week, and under parental supervision.

Donaldson also criticised parents who got drunk in front of their children.