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28th April 2008

ASDA Visit For MSP

North East Tory MSP Alex Johnstone has visited Asda's Portlethen store to find out more about the company's Challenge 25 initiative.

The Challenge 25 system, which will require anyone who appears to be under twenty five years of age to show recognised ID such as a driving license or PASS card, is part of a raft of measures introduced to ensure that no-one under eighteen years of age will be able to purchase alcohol at any of its stores.

The launch of this scheme follows alarming results from research which ASDA commissioned within Glasgow and London to find out how much older than their age a 16 year old can actually look.

A group of 16 year olds were taken onto the City streets and shoppers were asked to guess their age. 71% of respondents said the 16 year olds were actually aged 18 years and over and 23% even said they were over 21 years of age.

Commenting afterwards, Mr Johnstone said "This is a fantastic initiative and I offer my wholehearted congratulations to Asda for being so pro-active in combating sales of alcohol to underage youths.  There is a clear and unambiguous link between drink and anti social behaviour in our communities and everything that can be done to curb this, must be done."

"What really impressed me about Asda's initiative was the fact that it was more than just asking people for proof of age.  They have already removed certain brands of alcohol from their shelves, their till staff are selected on the basis that they will not be intimidated into selling alcohol to underagers, and I was also told that they will not sell alcohol to adults if staff suspect that the drink will be passed on to young people.  A practice that seems worryingly common these days.  On top of that, Asda regularly 'test purchases' at each of its stores in order to ensure its procedures are working effectively."

Mr Johnstone added "I would encourage all licensees to look closely at these procedures and see how they can be adapted to their own businesses.  For me, this visit has thrown into sharp focus the fact that the existing laws that we have regarding age related products are more than adequate, we just need to enforce them more stringently.  Scottish Government proposals such as raising the age of purchasing alcohol from off licenses and increasing the price of drink to discourage people from buying too much are nothing short of simplistic, knee jerk ideas that offer nothing more than a placebo to the issue of alcohol abuse and the anti-social behaviour that so often accompanies it."