Meeting documents

To be presented by Amanda Poole, Trading Standards Manager.

Amanda Poole and David Pickering attended and presented this report which is brought to the Committee annually and updated the Committee on the following points:

·         There had been a high level of compliance in Buckinghamshire for statutory warning notices to be displayed in premises where tobacco was sold.

·         Public Health colleagues had been closely worked with to help increase the awareness of the danger of smoking for young people.

·         It was said that a number of activities had been carried out throughout the year looking out for illegal tobacco. As it was of lower cost this had tended to enable greater access to children and those deprived. 491 packs were found in a light fitting of one searched premise; the same shop had hidden them behind a wall panel the previous year. A licence review had been carried out and as a result had been revoked. A second premise had sold illegal tobacco/alcohol which caused the licence to be revoked and a third premise received a 3 month licence revocation for the sale of illegal tobacco.

Member Questions

Question 1

·         A Member asked whether the number of test purchasers (mystery shoppers) had been reduced.

·         Amanda Poole advised that in the past test purchasers would go out routinely although the introduction of RIPA had meant a high level of intelligence was now needed on a certain premise so the authority is limited in ability to use test purchasing.

Question 2

·         A Member asked whether there had been any warnings or fixed penalties issued by regulatory officers in respect of the Smoke Free Vehicle Regulations.

·         Amanda Poole advised that there had not been and this issue had presented challenges. This would require some partnership working with Police as Regulatory Officers do not hold the power to stop a vehicle.

Question 3

·         A Member questioned if there had been any prosecutions in Buckinghamshire against shopkeepers selling tobacco products to underage children.

·         Amanda Poole explained that there had not been and it had been difficult to identify in a consistent enough way to prove intelligence for a magistrate to sign off a case.

Member Comment

·         In respect of plain packaging which was set to come into force in May 2016, a Member commented that this could cause issues as it would not be known what was in the packet and the tobacco products could be imported or worse.

·         Amanda Poole acknowledged this would present a challenge and advised that this comment would be taken on board.

RECOMMENDATION

To note and agree the report as a reflection of activity over the financial year 2014 –2015 and agree the programme of enforcement activities to be undertaken in 2016 –2017 as detailed below:

The work on tobacco issues which will focus on the Public Health strategy of addressing the "big issues" to improve the health and wellbeing of residents will include:

·          Continue to participate in and actively assist the Public Health Agenda with its projects and initiatives that fit within our enforcement activities outlined below and develop Trading Standards initiatives where they are felt necessary.

·         Establishing the prevalence of sales of illegal tobacco (both counterfeit and nonpaid duty) and intervening appropriately with regulatory partners to reduce this

·          Use local, regional and national intelligence to ensure we target our resources appropriately.

·         Promote the use of the Challenge 25 Training Pack to help prevent under-age sales by local retailers

·          Ensure that revised statutory warning notices are displayed in premises where tobacco is sold and advise traders about both current and new legislative requirements the legislation.

·         Ensure that the restrictions of both price marking and visual display requirements of tobacco products in retail premises are adhered to.

·         Continue to upgrade intelligence data from all viable sources, and where appropriate explore alternative means of detecting sales (other than by test purchases) to enable appropriate enforcement action to be taken against traders who sell to children. The Better Regulation Delivery Office Code of Practice for Regulatory Delivery on Age Restricted Products and Services to be followed. [Note: when Trading Standards previously conducted test purchases, established procedure was to covertly film the sale. This was done for both evidential purposes and Health and Safety reasons. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 covers all covert surveillance operations carried out by local authorities including Trading Standards. Recent Code of Practice changes require authorisation on a case by case basis from our local Magistrates. Their need to balance effective evidence gathering against the ever present risk of ‘collateral intrusion’ (i.e unintentionally capturing non relevant third party personal data on film) means that Magistrates are now less likely to give approval in circumstances when we have insufficient intelligence to satisfy the updated guidelines.]

·         Should we discover persistent sales of tobacco to under 18’s (2 or more occasions within a two year period) we will consider using powers contained in Section 143 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 to make a complaint to a Magistrate for an order either to prohibit tobacco sales from the premises or prohibit a specific person from selling tobacco products. This order is for a period of up to 12 months.

DECISION

The Committee agreed to all of the above recommendations.

The Chairman thanked Amanda Poole and David Pickering for their report.