News

The Low Pay Commission has visited an East of England Co-op store in Gorleston as part of its Visits Programme in Great Yarmouth. ACS supports retailers to take part in the Low Pay Commission Visits Programme to provide first hand evidence about the impact of the National Living Wage and employment costs.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) is encouraging retailers to get involved with Independents’ Day 2019.

Taking place today (4^th July) Independents’ Day is a campaign which aims to support and promote independent retail businesses across the UK. The grassroots campaign urges shoppers to visit their local independent businesses and share the campaign to encourage as many people as possible to support the independent businesses in their local area.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) is supporting International Plastic Bag Free Day (3^rd July) and is celebrating the work that convenience retailers have done to reduce the number of plastic bags being given out to customers.

The Government published their Resources and Waste Strategy which proposed to extend the current plastic bag charge to require all retailers to charge for single-use plastic bags.

ACS has given evidence to a committee of MPs on the appropriateness of the current regulatory framework surrounding the sale, storage and use of fireworks, highlighting the work that retailers are doing to prevent underage sales.

The evidence session is part of the Petitions Committee’s inquiry into fireworks, following up on a petition that has been signed by nearly 300,000 people calling for a ban on the sale of fireworks to the public and for fireworks displays to be restricted to licenced venues.

A group of businesses and trade bodies representing the retail sector have written to the Home Secretary and other Ministers, calling for more to be done to tackle widespread violence and abuse against shopworkers.

The trade associations for the convenience retailing and wholesale sectors have teamed up with their members and major suppliers to launch a new Charter, defining and promoting standards of behaviour between individuals from different companies working together.  

The ’Dignity at Work’ Charter is a positive statement of high behaviour standards that companies can include in their own company policies and that businesses can sign up to.

The Charter sets out the following commitments for businesses to sign up to:

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) is reminding retailers about the upcoming F-Gas service ban on the launch of first ever World Refrigeration Day (26^th June).

The World Refrigeration Day initiative aims to raise awareness about the contribution that refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pumps make globally across many aspects of modern life.

The government has announced today (25th June) plans to introduce a new law requiring food businesses to include full ingredients labelling on foods prepacked for direct sale.

Defra defines prepacked food for direct sale as applying to, “foods that have been packed on the same premises from which they are being sold. These might include a packaged salad or baguette from a shop that was made by staff earlier in the day, packaged in the kitchen and then placed on a shelf for customers to purchase.”

ACS has given evidence to the Non-Domestic Rating Bill Committee, welcoming the move to more frequent revaluations on business rates.

The evidence session comes after the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government confirmed changes to the frequency of business rates valuations earlier this month. The next revaluation, previously scheduled for 2022, will be brought forward to 2021, with revaluations taking place every three years thereafter instead of the current five year period.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) is urging retailers to fill in an online template to help them respond to the Home Office’s call for evidence on violence and abuse against shop staff. The call for evidence is closing on Friday 28^th June and retailers can contact ACS if they need help with their response.