May 23 (Bloomberg) -- More than half of Britain's pubs agreed to end ``happy hour'' on their premises to clamp down on binge drinking, the British Beer & Pub Association said.

Companies that own about 32,000 of the U.K.'s 59,000 pubs have stopped promotions such as ``all you can drink for 10 pounds'' ($18) and ``girls drink free'' to help the police and government clamp down on excessive drinking, the association known as the BBPA said today on its Web site.

``Irresponsible promotions damage the reputation of the sector, drive down quality and standards, and have no place in a well-managed licensed business,'' said Mark Hastings, a spokesman for the BBPA.

Excessive drinking costs Britain 20 billion pounds a year in hospital fees, cleaning bills and employee absenteeism and accounts for about half of all incidents of violent crime, the government has said.

Eight of 10 adults view themselves as pub-goers, according to the BBPA. Young British women are drinking their European counterparts ``under the table'' and will consume about a third more alcohol on average over the next five years, a study conducted by Datamonitor showed last month.

Irish Example

The Irish government outlawed ``happy hours'' in the country's 10,000 pubs in August 2003, in a bid to curb rowdy behavior on streets and in bars. By the end of last year, Irish alcohol consumption was 3 percent lower than in 2000, a decline also associated with the introduction in 2004 of a ban on smoking in bars, the Drinks Industry of Ireland said in an e-mailed statement today.

U.K. Home Secretary Charles Clarke in January outlined plans to impose a levy on pubs and clubs that cause the most trouble to help police fund their fight against alcohol-related violence. The ban on happy hours comes as new laws take effect later this year allowing English pubs to stay open later than 11 p.m.

Early closing hours date back to restrictions imposed during World War I to ensure munitions workers showed up for work on time the next morning.

The BBPA's members own nearly two thirds of the country's pubs and account for 98 percent of the beer brewed in the U.K. Its members includes Diageo Plc, the world's largest liquor maker, and Mitchells & Butlers Plc, the owner of British pub chains such as All Bar One and O'Neill's.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gabrielle Monaghan in Dublin at monaghan@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 23, 2005 07:01 EDT