Members of BHETA’s taskforce created to address the issues around the responsible retail of bladed items have met with the Trading Standards Institute to share knowledge and discuss best practice moving forward.The meeting which included BHETA’s marketing manager Steve Richardson, who is also liaising with Scotland Yard on the matter, and Leon Livermore, CEO of Trading Standards explored a number of avenues related to product design and development, retail fixtures and point of sale including the use of Challenge 25; and methodologies for monitoring and testing.“This was a first meeting,” explained Steve, “but we established a lot of common ground in terms of furthering the legitimate purchasing interests of consumers and the legitimate trading interests of retailers and suppliers.“The draft for the new Offensive Weapons Act is still under consideration by the new Government following last year’s consultation period, so it is vital that all parties use this time to ensure they are doing everything possible to address the very complex issues of knife crime, while protecting responsible commercial activity and the interests of legitimate consumers. We will be meeting again to take discussions further.”Chief among the many queries arising from the OWA consultation period was the revised definition of ‘bladed item’ in the context of the act. In the latest draft, for examples, products such as cutlery, scissors and garden secateurs were included.The BHETA responsible knife retailing taskforce includes leading brands such as John Lewis, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Lakeland, Dunelm, Steamer Trading, T K Maxx, Elys of Wimbledon, Harts of Stur, Taylor’s Eye Witness, Amefa, Fiskars, Meyer, Haus, Burton McCall, Kuhn Rikon, Rayware and Robert Welch.For more information about BHETA, BHETA lobbying and the BHETA responsible knife retailing campaign and BHETA lobbying, contact the Member Services Team on 0121 237 1130.
