RETAILERS PLEASED WITH HOME OFFICE RESULTS

8 February 2006

The British Retail Consortium (BRC), on behalf of the Retail Alcohol Standards Group (RASG), believes that the alcohol test purchasing results published today by the Home Office are a testament to retailers’ efforts to reduce under age sales.

Due to intensive collaboration and major investment by the members of the RASG, supermarkets cut their failure rates by two-thirds (50% to 17%) during the latest campaign and off licences (as a whole) reduced their results by nearly half (36% to 20%).

While the results show retailers still have some way to go towards achieving RASG’s ultimate objective of seeking to eliminate underage sales, they are a significant improvement on the previous test purchase campaign which took place during summer 2005.

BRC Director General, Kevin Hawkins, says: “The alcohol test purchasing results issued today by the Home Office, are testament to the huge efforts retailers have made in the past few months to crack down on under age sales.

“The uniform signage launched in December has proved extremely effective and more stores, large and small, are adopting it. Retailers have also worked very closely with their staff and on their staff training programmes to reinforce the message that if you appear under the age of 21 that you will be asked for identification and that no ID means No sale. 

"However, we appreciate there is still some way to go and so these efforts will continue. With the support of the Government, the retail industry is still committed to its aim of seeking to eliminate underage sales by the end of 2006. We will be reviewing progress regularly with the Home Office during this period and continuing to work with the Police and local authorities.”