South Ayrshire Council News

South Ayrshire Council is praising local retailers after their latest test purchasing sweep revealed that none of the premises visited sold cigarettes to their underage volunteers.

In October last year the legal age limit for purchasing tobacco was raised from 16 to 18. Following the introduction of the new age limit Trading Standards Officers carried out covert visits using 15 and 16 year old volunteers. Results showed that over 25% of the shops visited (7 in total) sold cigarettes illegally to the young people.

Written warnings were issued to these shops and Trading Standards Officers were delighted after follow up visits revealed no sales from any of the 7 shops that had sold on the first occasion.

South Ayrshire Councillor Peter Convery, responsible for Trading Standards issues stated, “It is very important to restrict access to tobacco for young people as studies have shown that the younger someone starts to smoke the greater the chance is of becoming addicted. These results indicate a real improvement and local retailers should be praised for helping play their part in tackling underage sales. However, we must not overlook the fact that we were disappointed to get 7 sales in the first place and we will continue to use test purchasing as an effective check that retailers have taken the ‘no proof no sale message’ to heart.”

Councillor Convery continued, “In the run up to the change in the age limit all retailers were provided with advice and display and training materials that assisted them to put systems in place to prevent sales to underage persons. We would advocate a policy of automatically asking for proof of age for all young people that appear under 21. A number of retailers are requesting it from those that appear under 25. With the existing Young Scot Card and the replacement National Entitlement Card available free to all young people it should not be an embarrassing situation for either the retailer or the purchaser. The request for and production of proof of age should become part of the normal routine.”

Trading Standards Officers have advised traders to continue to be vigilant to ensure that no sales are made to underage persons from their premises. Over the next year Officers will embark on a comprehensive programme of underage sales enforcement including test purchasing.

Any retailer who would like advice on the prevention of the sale of age restricted products such as cigarettes, fireworks, alcohol or solvents should contact Trading Standards at 5-7 River Terrace, Ayr or on 01292 616403