As a retailer it is imperative to follow the rules and laws around age-restricted products and services. These laws restrict the sale of certain products and services to underage customers.  

Below is a list of products and services with the corresponding age restrictions.

If selling age-restricted products or services to a person under the minimum legal age it may be an offence under the relevant law. The penalties can include fines or even imprisonment. In these cases, a retailer must prove they took 'all reasonable precautions/all reasonable steps' and exercised 'all due diligence' to avoid committing the offence.

This basically means that the retailer is responsible for ensuring staff members do not sell age-restricted products to individuals under the relevant minimum legal age. There are a number of ways that this can be monitored and managed.

• Age Verification Checks – If someone looks under age staff must verify their actual age with a passport, driving licence or identity card that bears the PASS hologram.  PASS (the Proof of Age Standards Scheme) is the UKs national proof of age accreditation scheme.
• Challenge 21/25 – This is a scheme the retailer must participate in as it is a licensing condition to sell alcohol.  The retailer must carry out age verification checks on anyone who looks younger than 21 or 25. (In Scotland it is a legal requirement to check anyone that looks under 25).
• Staff training – it is the retailer's responsibility to ensure that staff are trained sufficiently on underage sales. A training record with regular updates should be provided for staff so there are no training gaps.
• Till prompts – any age restricted product that is scanned should give a prompt on the till to confirm that the staff member serving the customer carries out the relevant age verification checks.
• Store layout – age-restricted products should be stocked where they can be monitored on a regular basis. Fireworks that are kept on the shop floor must by law be kept in a secure cabinet. There should be clear indication to show customers the relevant legal age to purchase age-restricted products.

Finally it is worth keeping a refusals record that shows date, time, incident and description of the potential buyer when age-restricted products have been refused.  This will help prove the retailer actively monitors age-restricted items and has an effective system in place. 

Related Service: Compliance Audit Services