LBRO consults ahead of code on enforcement of age-restricted legislation

The Local Better Regulation Office (LBRO) has launched a consultation on establishing a broad framework of principles for compliance and enforcement of age restrictions on products ranging from tobacco and solvents to alcohol and knives.

LBRO is proposing to use the framework as the context for a code of practice providing more detailed provisions for regulators and enforcement agencies.

The proposed code of practice would be applicable to:

• all age restricted products and services, and all regulators and enforcers that enforce the legislation governing these products and services;
• all compliance and enforcement activities, but in particular to the practice of ‘test purchasing’, where regulators and enforcers engage a young person to attempt to access a product or service; and
• England and Wales.

A draft code is expected to be published in Autumn 2011 and will be subject to a separate consultation. LBRO said it hoped to have a final document in place by early 2012.

The issue of the enforcement of age-restricted products legislation was the top issue raised by a number of trade associations when the LBRO set up a Business Reference Panel in 2009.

In a report published last year, Better Regulation of Age Restricted Products: A Retail View, the organisations recommended that LBRO should co-ordinate the development of a binding code of practice which should reflect the principles of good enforcement. They also said the code should deal with all aspects of the use, conduct, prompt notification and follow up of test purchasing exercises.

In the introduction to the consultation, LBRO said it was important to recognise that the greatest contribution to meeting the objectives of legislative controls could be made by children and young people themselves, and by their parents and others who have responsibility for educating and caring for them. “High street businesses are at the frontline of restricting retail access but can not solve the wider problems of young people accessing these products and services,” it added.

The role of regulators and enforcers, it said, was “to promote awareness of the controls in the wider community; to provide support, where it is needed, to those businesses that recognise their responsibilities and are striving for compliance; and, to step in and take firm action where businesses do not act responsibly.”

A copy of the LBRO consultation can be downloaded here.