We have for a number of years enforced legislation concerning age-restricted products. We now have two officers who co-ordinate this work.
Smoking and alcohol abuse have been proved to have a detrimental effect on a person's health and the legislation has been passed to protect the overall well being of young people who may be attempting to purchase these products.
Any products which may only be sold to individuals of a certain age are referred to as 'Age Related Sales'. It is illegal for shopkeepers to sell these goods to people under the required age.
The table below shows the different age related sales and a jump link to more information within this page.
 Product |
Age |
Alcohol |
18 |
Confectionery containing alcohol |
16 |
Cigarettes and tobacco |
18 |
Fireworks including sparklers |
18 |
Party poppers |
16 |
Films, DVDs, video and computer games |
12, 15, & 18 |
Cigarette lighter fuel & refill canisters containing butane |
18 |
Solvents i,e, glues, marker pens & correction fluid |
18 |
Lottery tickets & scratch cards |
16 |
Crossbows |
18 |
Knives and other bladed articles |
18 |
Aerosol paints |
16 |
Petrol |
16 |
Legislation prohibits the sale of certain products to persons under certain ages. This is designed to guide you through the requirements of the law and assist in compliance.
The Trading Standards Service, the Police and the local licensing authorities in the Boroughs and Districts jointly enforce this legislation. It is a criminal offence to sell alcohol to anyone under 18. The person who makes the sale, the Designated Premises Supervisor, personal licence holders and the company operating the business may be held liable for this offence. It is also an offence for a person under 18 to sell alcohol unless the sale is specifically authorised by someone who is over 18.
The maximum penalty for not following the law is a level 5 fine of up to £5,000 under the Licensing Act 2003 and your liquor licence may be removed or suspended.
Sweets containing alcohol including liqueur chocolates etc must not be sold to children under 16 years.
The maximum penalty for not following the law is a level 5 fine of up to £5,000 under the Licensing Act 2003 and your liquor licence may be removed or suspended.
Test purchasing – The law gives Trading Standards Officers the power to make test purchases using children under 18. Surrey County Council are very active with undercover test purchasing and it is highly likely that you may be checked and, if you sell to the child, you will commit a criminal offence.
Sale by a person under 18 – The licensee must not allow a person under 18 to make any sale of alcohol unless the sale has been specifically approved by the licence holder or by a person over the age of 18 acting on his behalf. Each and every sale of alcohol must be supervised and approved in this way.
Children and Young Persons Act 1933 / Children and Young Persons (Protection From Tobacco) Act 1991 / Children and Young Persons (Sale of Tobacco etc.) Order 2007
Under this legislation, it is an offence to sell cigarettes, tobacco products or cigarette papers to anyone under 18, even if they look older. This applies whether or not the cigarettes are for the young person’s own use. It is also an offence to sell cigarettes unless they are in quantities of 10 or more and in their original packaging. This means that packets of cigarettes cannot be split to sell lesser quantities.
If you sell cigarettes to any person under the age of 18 years you could face a fine of up to £2500.
The following warning notice must be exhibited in a prominent position, which is clearly visible to anyone purchasing cigarettes, at every retail premise at which tobacco is sold. It must not be less than 297mm x 420mm (A3), with no character being less than 36mm in height.
IT IS ILLEGAL TO SELL TOBACCO PRODUCTS TO ANYONE UNDER THE AGE OF 18
It is a criminal offence to fail to display this notice and you could face a fine of up to £1000.
You must not allow persons under the age of 18 years to obtain cigarettes from vending machines. Vending machines should be placed where you can see them and where you can control their use. Where it is evident that a person under age has used a vending machine, a Court can make an order regulating its use or its removal.
You must display a sign on the vending machine stating " This machine is only for the use of people aged 18 or over."
The sign itself should be at least 60mm x100mm with the letters being at least 6mm in height.
If you fail to display this sign then you could face a fine of up to £1000.
Information about the ban on smoking in public can be found at the Smoke Free England website.
The Fireworks (Safety) Regulations 1997 as amended:
If you sell these products to children you could be fined up to £5,000 in the magistrates court or face a term of imprisonment of up to 6 months or both.
The Video Recordings Act 1984:
It is an offence to supply or offer to supply a video recording to any person who has not attained the age specified on the recording. This legislation applies to video films, video games and computer games.
It is an offence to show that you neither knew nor had reasonable grounds to believe that:
The age restrictions are 12,15 and 18.
The maximum fine for selling or renting an age restricted cassette/DVD to a child under the specified age is £5,000 and/or up to 6 months imprisonment.
Restricted 18 video cassettes and DVDs can be supplied only in licensed sex shops to persons 18 years of age and older.
Further information is available about film classification from the British Board of Film Classification.
Cigarette Lighter Refill (Safety) Regulations 1999
It is an offence to supply cigarette lighter refills containing butane to anyone under the age of 18.
Intoxicating Substances (Supply) Act 1985
An offence is committed under this legislation if volatile substances or solvent based products are sold and it is believed that they are for a person under the age of 18 and that they are likely to be inhaled for the purposes of becoming intoxicated. This offence applies even when it is known that another person is buying the product for the person under the age of 18.
Examples are solvent-based glues, aerosols, dry cleaning fluid, correction fluid and thinners, marker pens, antifreeze.
You must not sell or supply any substance to a person under the age of 18 years, which you believe they may inhale for the purpose to cause intoxication.
Special attention should be paid to young persons -
But solvents may be sold to persons under 18 for their normal intended use
National Lottery etc. Act 1993/National Lottery Regulations 1994
It is important to note that if you sell to a child then you may be breaching your contract with your supplier of the Lottery Terminal, which could result ultimately in the terminal being removed.
You must not sell or supply an air weapon to a person under the age of 17 years.
The penalty for selling or hiring an air weapon to a person under 17 years of age is up to 6 months imprisonment, a fine of up to £5,000 or both.
You must not sell or hire a crossbow to a person under the age of 18 years.
The maximum penalty on summary conviction is 6 months imprisonment or a fine of £5,000 or both.
Offensive Weapons Act 1996
It is an offence for a person to sell the following to a person under the age of 18 -
Whether a particular article is a knife is a question of fact, but using a wider definition this legislation prohibits such sales of e.g. sheath knives; kitchen knives; craft knives and carpet knives to persons under the age of 18.
This legislation does not apply to folding pocket knives if the cutting edge of the blade is less than 3 inches or 7.62cm. Nor does it apply to replacement cartridges for safety razors, where less than 2mm of the blade is exposed.
The maximum penalty on summary conviction is 6 months imprisonment or a fine of £5,000 or both.
You must not sell an aerosol paint container to a person under the age of 16 years. Maximum penalty £2,500.
You must not sell petrol to any person under the age of 16 years. In addition, no person under the age of 18 years should be left in sole charge of a filling station.
If you would like further information on any underage sales issues being undertaken by Surrey Trading Standards, please contact Citizens Advice consumer service on 08454 04 05 06.
Permalink: http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/?a=208975
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