Age Restricted Sales – Consumers

Many parents worry about their children smoking, drinking alcohol or taking drugs. When is the right time to talk to your children? Young people may also want advice about these subjects and may find it difficult to talk to their parents. The web link below gives lots of advice and information to help.

Age restrictions for products are brought in by the Government to protect the underage person. The impact of underage drinking and smoking can be devastating on the health and development of the individual.

It is a criminal offence to sell an age-restricted product to someone who is underage. The punishment can be a fine of up to £5000 or 6 months imprisonment.

Communities can also be badly affected, particularly by underage drinking which can often lead to anti-social behaviour and a fear of crime. The Isle of Wight Trading Standards Service works with Hampshire Constabulary and other departments within the Council to tackle these issues.

A list of age-restricted products and the relevant ages is available here.

What are Trading Standards doing?

The Service carries out test purchases to check retailers are complying with the law and not selling age-restricted products to underage persons. These exercises involve a young person attempting to buy an age-restricted product such as alcohol, tobacco, solvents, knives or spray paints.

At the beginning of 2011, there were closure notices issued to 2 premises for failing alcohol test purchases twice within a 3 month period. This meant both premises were unable to sell any alcohol for 48 hours.

What else is happening?

The Service was involved in the Community Alcohol Partnership pilot in Sandown.

The Service has provided seminars, training and materials to retailers. For retailers wishing to use the Challenge 25 age verification policy, the link to materials is available here http://www.wsta.co.uk/challenge-25.html

For further information or if you suspect a shop is illegally selling age-restricted products, please contact us on 823370 in confidence.

Drugs – Talk to Frank

Talk about Knives – advice for parents

Guidelines on drinking for under18s from the Drink Aware Trust