The British Home Enhancement Trade Association (BHETA) responsible knife retailing steering group met with the Metropolitan Police Business Care Hub earlier this month. The group discussed the forthcoming Offensive Weapons Act (OWA) legislation – now expected in the summer – as well as proactive police and trading standards initiatives that relate to the legitimate retail of knives and other bladed items.
Tony Allen, ceo of the Age Check Certification Scheme and co-chair of the Government Panel for Age Verification made an informative presentation at the meeting. The other key speaker was BHETA’s marketing manager Steve Richardson, who is spearheading BHETA’s ground-breaking liaison with the relevant experts, as well as driving BHETA’s initiatives to help supplier members and retailers comply with current and future legislation affecting knives sales.
The Metropolitan Police updated the round table forum on the relevant statistics and political emphasis, including its own new initiatives to record and analyse data on seized weapons with a view to advising on home and work storage of knives in circulation as well as new products.
The Met also supplied an outline of its guidance initiative aimed at SME retail regarding kitchen knives and welcomed feedback from suppliers and larger retailers at the forum on how this might be improved prior to wider roll out to retail in general, to parents and the general public. The forum also touched on the potential for testing round-ended kitchen knives for the mass market from the perspective of suppliers and retailers.
From a technical viewpoint, Tony Allen gave an overview of current age verification methods and how they will evolve. He offered practical suggestions regarding retail procedures, packaging and barcodes, and talked about practical elements of lobbying.
BHETA’s marketing manager, Steve Richardson welcomed the collaborative approach toward developing best practices and updated all parties on its lobbying regarding the multiple confusions in the initial OWA draft, liaison with Trading Standards and BHETA’s liaison with the Wine & Spirit Trade Associations (WSTA) to develop its Challenge 25 retail POS and packaging initiative for bladed items.
There is now a suite of officially sanctioned Challenge 25 artwork for suppliers, retailers and delivery companies involved in the legitimate supply of age-restricted bladed items such as kitchen knives and DIY and garden tools – all available through the BHETA member services team. These include artwork for labels, posters, shelf barkers and badges for use in the retail; and for supplier packaging and labels for outer cartons used for home delivery.
BHETA’s chief operating officer, Will Jones, chaired the meeting and reports: “This was a hugely positive event involving the best-informed opinion on the current situation regarding the legitimate purchase of bladed items through all retail channels.
“We achieved some great consensus on a number of positive ways forward, and BHETA alongside the other parties will be following up keenly.”
BHETA’s consultative steering group on bladed items includes John Lewis, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Dunelm, Steamer Trading, T K Maxx, Elys of Wimbledon, Harts of Stur, Taylor’s Eye Witness, Amefa, Fiskars, Meyer Group, Haus, Burton McCall, Kuhn Rikon, The Rayware Group and Robert Welch Designs. BHETA has been working with Scotland Yard since summer 2019.
Top: The Offensive Weapons Act – expected to be made law this summer – addresses the age verified delivery of knives to ensure under 18s do not receive bladed items.
