High Street supermarkets have sold knives to children during a test conducted by National Trading Standards. Tesco, Asda, Poundland and Home Bargains sold knives to under 18s at least 15 times each during a test between April 2018 and March 2019.
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Tesco and Asda have since updated their checks ands restricted sales as a result of the test. Poundland has stopped selling kitchen knives last year whilst Home Bargains has failed to comment on the test.
Trading Standard teams in England and Wales carried out 2,231 tests in national chains and independent shops. They also carried out 100 online tests and found children were able to purchase knives on 41 occasions.
Staff in the supermarkets failed to prevent a child 344 times from buying knives. It is illegal to sell knives to people under the age of 18 unless it has a folding blade 3 inches long (7.62 cm) or less.
Chairman of National Trading Standards Lord Toby Harris said: “Restricting the sale of knives to children is clearly a difficult issue for retailers, especially those with large numbers of outlets, staff and delivery partners, and I am aware that many retailers are working incredibly hard to train staff and introduce robust procedures to stem the flow of knives to children.
“But let’s be clear – it’s illegal to sell a knife to a child. Our tests show that it’s still too easy for a child to buy a knife.”
A spokesman for Asda commented on the results said: “In April 2019, we became the first retailer to remove all single knives from sale across our stores to help ensure that they do not fall into the wrong hands.
“Whilst we are clearly disappointed with the results from a small number of cases between April 2018 and March 2019, we would like to reassure customers that we have since provided updated training for colleagues and have clear Challenge 25 policies in place to ensure we meet all our responsibilities as a retailer.”
Tesco’s has now made changes including keeping single kitchen knives in locked cabinets in large stores which requires two members of staff to check the customers age.
Tesco UK and Ireland chief executive Jason Tarry said: “Tesco takes the safety of our colleagues, customers, and the communities we serve very seriously, and we have made significant changes to our approach to displaying and selling knives, without taking choice away from customers, including a new two-stage age verification process and removing knives from display on the shop floor.”
A spokesman for Poundland said: “As this body is aware, we’re baffled by their numbers.
“They know we stopped selling kitchen knives completely in all our 850 stores last year.”
Last year B&M was ordered to pay £480,000 in fines and £12,428 in costs after selling knives to children.
