Parents should not let their children drink any alcohol until they are 15, the government said yesterday after a review of medical evidence.

Chief medical officer Liam Donaldson made the recommendation as part of government efforts to reduce the levels of youth drinking.

He said a third of a million children aged between11and15 were getting drunk every week.

"That is a very large number and we need to do something about that," he told BBC radio.

"There is emerging medical evidence now to suggest that damage to the structure and function of the brain takes place with exposure to alcohol at those sorts of ages."

The law leaves control of drinking at home to a parent's discretion and only bars the consumption of alcohol by children under five. The government hopes that clear guidelines on safe drinking limits for children will help tackle a trend of increasing binge drinking among the young.

Its research has found a decline in the number of young drinkers over recent years. But it showed that those who do drink are consuming more alcohol and more often.

"Evidence... shows that things that families do... to point out the negative and health effects of alcohol lead to children drinking much later nearer to adulthood and drinking moderately in adult life," Mr Donaldson said.

The recommendations follow the publication last year of the government's Youth Alcohol Action Plan which promised to provide parents with guidance on their children's drinking.

Britain has one of the highest rates in the European Union of hospital admission due to alcohol use by 15-16 year olds.

Official figures released this week showed there had been an increase in the number of alcohol-related deaths among people aged 15-34 since 2005.