Underage Sales
What we do
It is a disturbing fact that more and more young people are starting to smoke and consume alcohol at an earlier age.
You will find information here on the various age restricted products and how we tackle the problem.
There's also information on the new alcohol licensing laws.
Hampshire County Council's Involvement in Underage Sales
At Trading Standards we have responsibility to enforce laws designed to protect the health and wellbeing of children and young people from harmful and damaging products.
The Service works with retailers to ensure that they and their staff understand the law. Young volunteers are used, in accordance with Government approved guidelines, to test whether retailers are selling to young people and appropriate enforcement action is taken if an illegal sale is made.
Enforcement
Retailer Pack
The Underage Sales Retailer Pack is distributed to all Retailers in Hampshire that sell age-restricted products.
Our intention is to provide up to date information and advice in this area. It is designed to support and complement any training by the retailer that is already in place.
The pack contains a questionnaire which retailers can use to test staff knowledge. On returning the questionnaires to Trading Standards, there is an opportunity to receive a certificate showing that the retailer is committed to reducing underage sales.
Newsletter - Summer 2008
Thank you for your continued efforts to restrict the availability of alcohol to young people.
Talk to your staff about about underage sales, and circulate this newsletter.
Please ensure any new staff are trained in dealing with underage product requests.
Remember staff under 18 cannot sell alcohol.
Record refused sales in your REFUSALS LOG.
Advice for Parents and Young People
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 following web link gives lots of advice and information to help :
Further Advice
Stop Press
As you may be aware, from 1st October 2008 legislation in the UK
requires pictorial health warnings to be displayed on all tobacco products manufactured for the UK market.
However, retailers have until 30th September 2009 to sell through cigarette packs that carry existing text health warnings, and until 30th September 2010 to sell through all other tobacco products that carry existing text health warnings.
Tobacco products with existing text health warnings will continue to be supplied by manufacturers until all stock manufactured prior to 1st October 2008 is exhausted. It is likely that the first packs containing pictorial health warnings will start to appear in the supply chain in mid November 2008, depending on the rate of sale of specific brands.
News
Deal Or No Deal? Hampshire County Council Trading Standards Offer New Year Sales And Shopping Advice