Did you know:
- Tobacco - About 9% of children between 11 and 15 years old smoke, and every day 450 children in the UK take up smoking.
- Alcohol - Nearly 1 in 4 secondary school children aged between 11 and 15 years old, drink alcohol each week.
- Fireworks - Over half of all firework injuries happen to children under the age of 15.
We carry out visits to all shops that sell age restricted products - alcohol, fireworks, tobacco and other products, and give them help and advice on how to make sure that they don’t break the law. We regularly “test” these shops by sending in a young volunteer who tries to “test purchase” one of these products. Traders who sell to our volunteers face prosecution!
In 2007/8 we attempted 101 test purchases which resulted in 13 shops selling to our volunteer. All of these were investigated with some being prosecuted and fined.
It is an offence for adults to buy alcohol on behalf of children If you are caught buying for a child the Police could issue you with an £80 penalty notice, or a court could fine you up to £5,000
If you know of any shops who sell to children or adults who are buying for children, report it on 08454 040506.
If you work in an off-licence and want to receive information about selling age restricted products, telephone us on the contact number below.
If you are aged between 14 and 16 and you would like to volunteer to help us with this work, more details are available on Wigan Council's volunteering pages
