Under 16s to help catch shopkeepers who sell cigarettes to children
Wednesday, August 3 2005
Scottish Borders Council's Trading Standards section is recruiting under-16s to help identify rogue retailers who are selling tobacco products to children.
Over the coming weeks, young volunteers will test purchase shops around the Borders in a Trading Standards operation to stamp out illegal cigarette sales. Under the Children and Young Persons (Protection from Tobacco) Act, it is an offence to sell tobacco or related products to anyone less than 16 years of age. The maximum fine for the commission of an offence is £5,000.
Previously, test purchasing using under-age volunteers was only carried out in England and Wales, but recent changes made by the Lord Advocate have now given trading standards officers in Scotland the same powers as their counterparts further south. The new exercise is being carried out in conjunction with Council officers in the Lothians.
John Lafferty, Enforcement Officer at Trading Standards, said, "It has long been our contention that children in England and Wales were better protected in law because officers there had the power to test purchase and we did not. It is very difficult to stamp out under-age sales and this should go a long way to assisting us. Our intention is to make traders think before they make a sale, and to tell them that, if they doubt that a customer is 16 or over, they should simply refuse. We have written to all our traders and informed them of what we will be doing, so there really should not be any excuse. There is absolutely no justification for selling these addictive and highly dangerous products to our children."
In Scotland 9% of boys and 15% of girls between the ages of 11 and 15 regularly smoke. One in five of all Scots deaths (or
120,000 deaths per annum) is smoking related, while smoking costs the Scottish health services £22 million a year.
In recruiting under-16s for surveys, Trading Standards follows a strict code of practice to ensure the proper care of the
youngsters.
For more information, please contact Robert Hall, SBC's Principal Trading Standards Officer. Tel: 01896 823922.
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