ACS

On Monday Shane Brennan, Director of Public Affairs at ACS spoke to delegates at the Local Government Association’s (LGA) conference on Smoking Regulation.

The conference was for local authority smokefree co-ordinators, trading standards and environmental health officers, to discuss the smoking ban one year on and future steps in tobacco control. ACS were asked to give an industry perspective on developments; the current challenges and the future of tobacco control.

On underage sales Mr Brennan said: "Retailers have one overriding priority and that is to prevent underage people from buying tobacco. It is very rarely seen in these terms, but the single largest tobacco control enforcement community is the hundreds of thousands of people that work in shops, supermarkets and tobacconists and who, day in day out, refuse to sell tobacco to people under age. The retail community does not do this universally well. Maintaining the highest standards in preventing underage sales is an ongoing challenge and there are those in the sector that are failing to meet their responsibilities. The most recent test purchasing results showed that there was a 19% failure rate for test purchases – this is far too many and we can do better.”

He also called for action against adults that proxy purchase: "We all accept that facilitating smoking by young people is immoral and we strongly believe it should be illegal."

Mr Brennan explained ACS' opposition to a point of sale display ban: "ACS opposes regulations to take tobacco off display in shops. The implications of this for our sector is thousands of pounds per store in changeover costs. Non retail experts play down these costs and suggest that they will be paid for by tobacco companies. As a retail representative that has spoken to retailers here and in other countries, I can assure you that this will not be the case."
 

He concluded by setting out the urgent need for action on illegal sales: "Right now not enough is done to prevent the problem of illegal tobacco being sold on the streets, in the parks and in pubs. I don’t say this as a criticism of local agencies, but instead as a challenge to Government to lead a coherent multi-agency strategy aimed at catching and deterring the sale of illegal tobacco in our communities. This has to be backed up with proper resources and not added to the long list of competing priorities that trading standards officers already have to deal with."