Trading standards advice for businesses

Age restricted sales

We enforce legislation on the sale of age-restricted products to children, including alcohol and tobacco.

We work with the police to reduce the number of the under-age sales by retailers in the borough and carry out test purchases to check compliance with the law and age-verification practices.

A test purchase is when we ask an underage volunteer to attempt to buy an age-restricted product. They may be covertly observed by an officer, or recorded.

If you are subject to a test purchase, we will inform you of the result either at the time or in writing afterwards.

Minimum ages for purchasing age restricted products

Product Minimum age for purchase
Adult fireworks 18
Aerosol spray paints 16
Alcoholic drinks 18
Animals 16
Butane cigarette-lighter refills 18
Crossbows and lookalike guns 18
DVDs, videos and certain console games 12, 15 or 18, as marked
Knives, axes and blades 18
Liqueur confectionery 16
Lottery tickets 16
Petrol 16
Tobacco products and cigarette papers 18

Prosecutions and fixed-penalty notices

We may prosecute, issue fixed penalty notices or cautions to retailers who make illegal sales.

In cases of illegal alcohol sales, we may instigate a licensing review of the alcohol premises licence, which may result in suspension or revocation of the licence.

Two illegal sales might lead to the voluntary closure of the licensed premises for a period of 48 hours to 2 weeks.

We offer retailers:

  • free advice
  • information leaflets
  • refusal booklets to record incidents of refusing the sale of age-restricted products

We also do educational work with young people to raise awareness of the law and the health risks associated with age-restricted products.