Major retailers call for simplification of law on underage sales

August 31, 2010

A group of leading retailers and major trade associations has called for the law on underage sales to be simplified and for test purchasing using deception to be used only with prior independent authorisation.

The Age-restricted Products Review Group made 12 recommendations in a report prepared following an independent investigation for the Local Better Regulation Office.

Saying that age-related sales were their number one concern within local regulation, the group said they wanted to see:

Unification of the current 18 separate pieces of legislation on underage sales, and a simple general due diligence defence for retail employees
Compliance partnerships between local regulators and trade associations
Closer working on the wider underage sales agenda with local businesses
Extension of LBRO’s primary authority scheme to cover age-restricted products
Shared responsibility for under-age sales amongst businesses, young people and adults who buy on their behalf, and
A binding code of practice to improve the effectiveness of test purchasing.

The group’s members include individual businesses such as Tesco, the Co-operative Group, and Asda. Trade associations involved include the British Beer and Pub Association, the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, the Association of Convenience Stores, and the British Retail Consortium.

Geoffrey Budd, the former company secretary of DSG International who led the review group, claimed that what the law currently requires of retailers was often hard for them to deliver.

He said: “Retailers are keen to play their part in denying children access to age-restricted products such as alcohol or knives, but their role can be more effective if retailers are seen as part of the solution, rather than the problem.”

Jennifer Brown, Public Affairs Manager for the Association of Convenience Stores, said its members were “all too aware” that sales of restricted products to youths can create anti-social behaviour problems which harm young people and communities.

But she warned that the current regulations brought in to tackle underage sales are often disproportionately focused on the shop and those that work there and fail to acknowledge good work done by responsible firms to keep products out of the hands of young people.

Brown added: "Effective enforcement has to encompass actions not only against businesses but against the individuals that willingly buy and supply alcohol to those underage and the young people themselves that seek to obtain products by deception. This report points to a fairer and more holistic approach to underage sales enforcement. "

The LBRO, which brought the parties together to produce the report, will now prepare a response to be sent to the government.

Its chairman, Clive Grace, acknowledged that age-restricted sales were a continuing focus of public and media concern, “and often for good reason”.

He said: "It is very important that sellers comply with the relevant regulations, yet those regulations are numerous, complex, and often experienced by businesses as unnecessarily burdensome. It is quite possible that the regulatory requirements could be considerably simplified whilst increasing the level of compliance, and also producing better social and community outcomes - a powerful 'win-win' for business, communities, and regulatory reform."

The group said its 12 recommendations would help make the law simpler and fairer through deregulation; recognise and support business compliance; and provide consistent, fair and effective enforcement. They were:

The current piecemeal legislation should be consolidated into a single piece of legislation to provide simplicity and greater consistency across the product categories with standardisation of offences and defences. This would provide a framework by which any new controls can be easily implemented in a consistent way to ensure future coherent development of the law. The legislation should include a binding code of practice.
A simple general due diligence defence should be available for retail employees across all product categories to provide fairness where a genuine and reasonable mistake in judging age has been made.
In order to provide a better deterrent all persons aged 14+ should be liable to a risk of sanction for deliberately attempting to obtain products to which they are not legally entitled.
Offences of buying on behalf of a young person, and conversely for a young person asking an adult to purchase on their behalf, should apply to age-restricted products having no justifiable use by the young person.
The compliance efforts of businesses should be fully taken into account when determining enforcement priorities and approaches.
Local licensing conditions should not be used to gold plate legal requirements by making "voluntary practice" mandatory as this undermines trust and deters voluntary initiative.
Enforcers should be encouraged to be more active in seeking opportunities to work with business and the communities in which they operate to tackle the wider agenda surrounding age-restricted products.
The Primary Authority system should be extended to cover all age-restricted product legislation including alcohol. Inspection plans should take retailer 'self testing' and other compliance activity fully into account.
Enforcers should be encouraged to develop partnerships with sectoral trade associations to provide a better communication channel to support compliance by their members including the dissemination of 'assured guidance' on which businesses should be entitled to rely.
LBRO should coordinate development of a binding code of practice dealing with all aspects of the use, conduct, prompt notification and follow up of test purchasing exercises with input from local authorities, police, business, government departments and consumers. The code should reflect the principles of good enforcement as set out in the Regulators Compliance Code and the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006.
To support business compliance efforts, businesses should always receive prompt notification of the results of any test purchasing carried out in their premises.
Test purchasing where lying or use of other deceptive is contemplated should only take place in the most exceptional circumstances and require specific independent authorisation.