Reducing youth violence in Barking and Dagenham is a key priority for the council and its Trading Standards team regularly run test purchasing operations with local businesses to ensure they’re not selling knives to young people.

Last week, Trading Standards officers ran an operation where a 13-year-old volunteer tried to purchase a knife from 20 different premises, however all 20 refused to sell to them and passed the operation.

All 20 of the businesses signed up to the council’s Responsible Retailer Scheme that promotes the responsible selling of knives to prevent people under the age of 18 from acquiring them and ensuring they’re stored securely within their premises.

Following this, the council’s Trading Standards team is providing businesses with some key best-practise tips:

1. Age verification checks - Verify the age of potential buyers by asking to see an identity card that bears the PASS hologram. The Proof of Age Standards Scheme (PASS) is the UK's national proof-of-age accreditation scheme supported by the Home Office.
2. Challenge 21/Challenge 25 - In England and Wales you can participate in a scheme to carry out age verification checks on anyone who looks younger than 21 or 25. When selling alcohol, tobacco or nicotine vapour products in Scotland it is a legal requirement to check the age of any customer who appears to be under 25.
3. Staff training - Make sure staff receive adequate training on underage sales. Keep a training record and make sure the training is regularly updated.
4. Use of till prompts - You can use prompts that appear on the till when an age-restricted product is scanned to remind staff to carry out age verification checks.
5. Store layout, signage, and CCTV - Keep your age-restricted products where they can be monitored by staff. For example, fireworks stored on the shop floor must by law be kept in a secure cabinet. Ensure you have adequate signs to inform consumers of the minimum legal age to purchase. You are legally required to display notices for tobacco and fireworks.
6. Keep and maintain refusals register - This means keeping a record (date, time, incident, description of potential buyer) where sales of age-restricted products have been refused. This helps to demonstrate that you actively refuse sales and have an effective system in place.

Councillor Syed Ghani, Cabinet Member for Enforcement and Community Safety said: “Local businesses have a responsibility to not sell certain products to young people under the age of 18 and I am really pleased that all 20 local businesses passed the test.

“We’re determined to reduce youth violence in the borough and having local businesses on board and ensuring they’re not selling knives to young people will make a difference.”

If residents are aware of businesses selling knives to young people, they can report them to the Trading Service team for tradingstandards@lbbd.gov.uk.