Key Projects
Underage Sales
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An Introduction to our Age Restricted Products Key Intervention Area
Devon Trading Standards Service is committed to reducing harm to young people, associated with the use of age restricted products, such as alcohol solvents and tobacco.
There are strict laws prohibiting the sale of age restricted products to young people as they are considered to present real risks to their health and welfare.
It is illegal for age restricted goods to be sold to those who are below the specified age limit (see table). Anyone found illegally selling or supplying certain age restricted products can be prosecuted and businesses may additionally lose their licence to sell certain products.
We take the issue of sales of age restricted products to children very seriously.
To ensure compliance we provide advice and support to Devon businesses, with the aim of preventing sales and raising the standard of systems and procedures retailers use to prevent under age sales. This is backed up by targeted test purchase operations to test retailers systems, and ensure that those not complying with the law are identified.
The Mid Devon Community Alcohol Partnership
In February 2010, Trading Standards initiated a pilot project, to create a Community Alcohol Partnership in Mid Devon. Community Alcohol Partnerships (CAPs) bring together local retailers, trading standards, police, licensing, health, education and other local stakeholders to tackle the problem of underage drinking and associated anti-social behaviour. CAPs are endorsed by the Home Office.
In partnership with the local community, the CAP uses a mix of education, enforcement and working to;
- Give retailers more confidence in complying with under age sales legislation,
- Make young people more aware of the potential harms of alcohol, and;
- Improve the perception of Mid Devon as a safer place to live
At the start of the project, a local alcohol retailer survey revealed that 86% were very confident in dealing with under age sales, and 14% were moderately confident.
Trading Standards and Police then undertook test purchasing operations in the Autumn of 2010, using young volunteers, between the ages of 14-16 to attempt to purchase alcohol (whilst under discrete supervision). Unfortunately, from 58 attempts, 34% of the pubs, clubs and restaurants targeted illegally sold alcohol to these young people. This is above the Devon average of 20-25% failures recorded previously in these types of operations. 15% of the off licences tested and 48% of the on-licences tested failed. There was therefore a gap in perception between businesses’ confidence in their ability to avoid illegal sales of alcohol and the reality evidenced by the relatively high proportion of illegal sales made during the test purchasing exercise.
CAP partners were determined to work with businesses, where possible, to try and find alternative, non-enforcement approaches that would yield sustainable results. These included advice visits, provision of a free CDRom ‘No Proof of Age – No Sale’ containing support materials and licensee and employee training programmes
.
Under the partnership an ID bailment pilot scheme [a few words needed here, explaining what an ID bailment scheme is] was introduced in the Tiverton area specifically to address an area of concern for the local retail trade and door staff, fake ID. This scheme was “highly commended” at the 2010 Responsible Drink Retailing Annual awards in London.
The Mid Devon CAP has been fully supported by the Retail of Alcohol Standards Group (RASG) which represents a large proportion of the major off-licence retail trade. In November 2010 an alcohol retailers meeting was attended by a number of locally based major alcohol retailers and local independents. There was a keen interest from all parties to work together towards the CAP objectives.
The Results From Year 1 Activity
Following the above first year CAP activity, a second round of alcohol test purchasing operations was conducted in early 2011. The comparison in results (see below) showed a very significant drop in the number of test purchase failures;
Comparison of illegal sales of alcohol to young people made, compared to attempts:
Area August 2010 March 2011
Tiverton 10/22 - 45% 4/18 - 22%
Cullompton 7/17 - 41% 1/15 - 7%
Crediton 3/19 - 16% 2/16 - 13%
Overall the illegal sales rate* following CAP interventions has dropped from 34% to 14%.
On licence illegal sales* dropped from 48% to 13%
(* Based on results from the March 2011 test purchasing operations)
Further intelligence has led to improvement plans being put in place for repeat offenders and premises where issues were identified. One premise in Mid Devon, which had given the partnership and its local area major cause for concern, has now voluntarily relinquished its licence following the partnership initiatives.
Although the results above represent a great success in this area, there is still a need for the work of the CAP to continue. For example, a Mid Devon community survey commissioned in late 2010 by CAP partners showed that 48.6% of people disagreed or strongly disagreed that their town/village was a safe and social place to be of an evening at weekends.
From survey results like this and our continued work with alcohol retailers some future challenges for the partnership have been clearly identified, which the partnership is keen to focus on in year 2 of the Mid Devon CAP. We are also looking at ways to expand the CAP into other areas of Devon.
We need your help!
Apply to be a volunteer test purchaser
Volunteers aged 13 - 16 years of age are needed to help Devon Trading Standards Officers enforce the law on under age sales of age restricted products. As a volunteer you will help undertake test purchases from shops and public houses.
Involvement is covered by rigorous Home Office guidelines to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all volunteers. The safety and security of our volunteers is paramount and we take every step to ensure that this is maintained.
Volunteers must be representative of their age (there should be no possibility that they could be thought to be over 18 years old). They should be freely willing to participate, with the consent of parents or carers. Please note some of the operations will take place at evenings and weekends. No remuneration is paid but we will provide a small gift voucher, a free meal and snacks during the course of the evening’s work, and a certificate to include in the young person's record of achievement or CV.
Unfortunately, we only accept volunteers who reside in Devon and Torbay. If you reside outside these areas and wish to volunteer, please contact your local Trading Standards Service.
If you want to volunteer, or are a teacher, parent or carer who wants more information, please phone us 01392 381381 or contact us
Products which have a selling Age Restriction
Age restricted product |
Age restriction |
Alcohol |
18 |
Cigarettes and tobacco products including from vending machines |
18 |
Fireworks |
18 |
Knives, blades and axes (not including folding knives with blades under 3 inches long) |
18 |
Solvents and lighter refills |
18 |
Lottery tickets and scratch cards |
16 |
Petrol |
16 |
Spray paints |
16 |
Video/DVD/Games |
As shown on certificate E.g 12,15,18 |
