Agenda item

This report summarises the latest position in relation to activity in these areas and the Joint Committee is asked to note.

Declarations of interest:

There were none.

Witnesses:

Amanda Poole, Assistant Head of Trading Standards

Steven Ruddy, Head of Trading Standards

Key points from the discussion:

1.    Officers introduced the report and provided a brief summary. Members noted the following details:

·         Knife crime remained a significant concern, particularly in relation to young people and/or gang culture. In September the Service sent the National Business Crime Centre Knife Retailers Toolkit out to inform businesses based in Buckinghamshire and Surrey about their legal obligations relating to the sales of knives. The toolkit has been available on the website since February, with promotion through social media channels. The Service has worked with the Association of Convenience Stores to provide information about selling all age restricted products (including both knives and NOS) to their members (over 30,000 members nationally).

·         However, the Service want to directly make local businesses aware of the contents before they attempt test purchases and delayed this activity during Covid to allow businesses to focus on getting to grips with the new requirements on them for covid-security such as social distancing.

·         Intelligence has been gathered from a number of sources and the Service will be carrying out test purchases to establish compliance relating to underage sales via the internet during September. The Police (using police cadets as the purchasers) have taken the lead on joint operations for test purchasing knives from shops and anticipate more will be done in the coming months. The current NPCC guidance was that no under 18s should be used for test purchasing but this was being reviewed in September.

·         Nitrous Oxide misuse was a concern to local communities, particularly in relation to anti-social behaviour and can be inhaled for a short term ‘high’. To effectively tackle this issue in a local area requires partners across several agencies to work together to deal with multiple aspects of the issue in a coordinated way and the Service are also working with district council community officers and Buckinghamshire Council.

·         The service was approached by Surrey police in April to work with them to attempt test purchases from several businesses in an area of Surrey. Coincidentally the Service also received several complaints and pieces of intelligence about the sale of NOS in the same area. This has led to a constructive multi-agency meeting where a plan to address the issues in this particular area has been developed. This will be followed with test purchasing jointly between Trading Standards and the Police.

2.    A Member asked whether it was possible to allocate further resources to this area so that visible activity by the Service could also act as a preventative measure. An officer responded that they were working closely with partners, particularly community safety teams and the police. New regulations imposed because of the covid-19 pandemic could have an impact on this work, particularly face to face test purchasing. Members asked officers to review the use of underage volunteers and to consult Members beforehand. An officer responded that they could provide a briefing for Members on the controls in place for underage volunteers, how parents and guardians were involved and also how they were observed by staff. Members commented that they would find this useful. A Member also suggested using Fire Cadets as well as Police Cadets.

RESOLVED:

That the Trading Standards Joint Committee note the Service’s activity in both preventing knife crime and illegal use of nitrous oxide.