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5. SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION
5.1 VIEWS OF LICENSEES
In total, 230 licensees were interviewed during the baseline, impact and outcome phases of the evaluation. All areas of Fife were represented in the research phases. Also, almost all of the licensees interviewed at baseline had not yet been targeted by the test purchase pilot, whereas the interviewees at impact and outcome had all been subject to a recent test purchase visit. At outcome, 42 interviewees were based in shops or bars that had failed the initial test purchase visit.
At outcome, there was clear evidence that the knowledge and awareness of test purchasing and the alcohol pilot had increased among licensees, with very few respondents stating that they knew little about the subject. At the start of the pilot there had been a major effort to inform licensees about the pilot via launch events, visits from police officers and media coverage. However, the evaluation suggests that the major learning associated with test purchasing among licensees took place when their outlets were subject to actual test purchase visits. This view is also supported by the fact that relatively few revisits resulted in sales, and most respondent types in the evaluation thought that licensees had increased staff training and tightened up their practice after the first visit.
Licensees' views of test purchasing as a measure did not appear to be as popular at outcome as they were at baseline. However, even allowing for the fact that 42 licensees at outcome represented outlets that had failed the test, 87% of all interviewees at outcome still perceived that test purchasing was at least 'quite a good idea'. In comparison, existing proof of age card schemes were thought to be 'quite a good idea' by three-quarters of respondents, suggesting that test purchasing compared with existing card schemes is preferred by licensees as an enforcement measure. However, as is pointed out below, in terms of restricting alcohol sales to young people licensees favour utilising test purchasing and a national card scheme in tandem. It is also important to note that the pilot had an effect on the reported behaviour of licensees, with all but one respondent stating that they would always ask customers for proof of age information if they had doubts that they were of an appropriate age to purchase alcohol.
Training of staff appeared to have increased at outcome; this was especially the case in the on-sale sector. Almost three-quarters of licensees now stated that they gave their staff at least 'quite a lot of training'. Only one respondent reported giving no training to staff members. It is important to note that the police, procurator fiscal and focus group respondents all felt that licensees had increased staff training as a result of being subject to a test purchase visit. Licensees themselves reported staff attending training courses, new training policies drawn up and a mixture of formal and informal measures utilised to assist staff develop good practice in relation to selling alcohol to young people.
The licensees were asked how likely it would be that their outlets would be targeted again after being visited during the test purchase pilot. Despite the fact that the pilot was at an end 90% of interviewees thought that they would be subject to test purchasing in the future. If this is a true reflection of the licensees' views it suggests that the pilot had impacted on both licensees' knowledge and behaviour and this was likely to be maintained for some time. However, in the absence of any test purchasing activities in their outlets it is a moot point as to how long this impact on knowledge and practice would last. (In the pilot, though, Fife police did continue to utilise test purchasing as a standard enforcement tactic as the legislation introduced to cover the pilot was still in place.)
The most popular measure among licensed staff at baseline and outcome to reduce sales of alcohol to those under the age of 18 years was for test purchasing to be utilised in combination with a robust, nationally-accepted proof of age card scheme - 53% of respondents expressed this view. Given the fact that test purchasing was also proposed as the favoured way forward combined with other measures, at outcome 57% of licensees called for test purchasing to be part of a future enforcement regime. Also, almost one-half of interviewees who had failed the test purchase visit still called for the introduction of test purchasing as part of the enforcement armoury. Over one-quarter of respondents thought that a national proof of age card scheme alone was the best way to help restrict sales of alcohol to young people. At outcome it is worth noting that 13% of licensees perceived that there should also be increased surveillance work carried out by police to help support the licensed trade. Although there is no real support among licensed trade staff for either the status quo or test purchasing as an isolated activity, the licensees throughout the pilot have suggested that alcohol test purchasing in tandem with a national proof of age card scheme should be adopted to help restrict sales to those under the age of 18 years.
At outcome, all of the licensees interviewed were aware that their premises had been subject to a test purchase visit. Assuming that a proportion of these interviewees were not on the premises during the actual visit, this shows that more junior staff were informing them that a test purchase had taken place. In the sample of interviewees, the group at the point of sale who failed the test most frequently were junior shop or bar staff. The data supplied by Fife Police after they completed test purchases support this view. It also stresses the importance of training to assist more junior staff, and reflects a concern which will be addressed below that young people are more likely to sell alcohol to their peers, and arguably staff members should be 18 years if they are entitled to sell alcohol.
Despite the fact that most interviewees (76%) said that the test purchase visits were not very obvious to staff, the majority of these visits resulted in the outlet passing the test. Although the majority view was that the test purchase had not been obvious, 82% of licensees able to express an opinion reported that the visit had been conducted fairly. Ten respondents who were licensees in premises which failed the test said that it had been carried out unfairly, especially because the test purchasers looked older than 16 years of age. Again, though, this critical view of the conduct of the pilot was only expressed by a minority of licensees, and most of those that failed the test admitted the offence, and usually that the fault lay with the sales person.
Those interviewees who represented test purchase failure outlets were much more likely to state that they had made changes to their retail practice as a consequence of the pilot. However, the responses from licensees and other key informant groups does suggest that most licensees, regardless of the result of the test visit in their premises, had at the very least tightened up their retail practice and had become more aware of their responsibilities as a result of the pilot. Arguably, it was the blanket approach of test purchasing adopted during the pilot that was responsible for such an impact, as the publicity and media coverage might not have had a great impact on first time failures, whereas revisit failures were few.
5.2 VIEWS OF VOLUNTEERS AND PARENTS
Six volunteers and their parents were interviewed at baseline and impact, with a different cohort of five parents and volunteers interviewed at impact and outcome. The 11 volunteers represented both genders as well as the three police divisional areas of Fife.
When the views of all of the volunteers and parents interviewed for the pilot are taken into account it is clear that they experienced very few problems throughout the pilot, and the volunteers would be willing to take part in such activities again. Indeed, these respondents did not stop participating in the pilot of their own accord, but usually when they reached the age of 17 years. In addition, the contact between the police and the volunteers was reported as being exceptionally positive, from initial recruitment, through the briefing to going out on test purchase visits. The volunteers and parents interviewed at outcome were unable to suggest any ways in which test purchasing activities could be improved. As a result, if other areas are to adopt test purchasing of alcohol it would seem sensible for them to employ as similar a method as possible as the one Fife Police utilised when dealing with volunteers and their parents.
5.3 VIEWS OF POLICE RESPONDENTS
Four members of police staff were interviewed at impact and outcome. They were selected in order to reflect both strategic and operational viewpoints of the pilot, as well as to cover the different police divisional areas in Fife.
At outcome, the police interviewees were very positive about the pilot, its impact on licensees and their dealings with volunteers and parents. Licensees were perceived as reacting well to the pilot, and even to first test purchase failures, in the main. It was reported that licensees had improved their training function and had reviewed their retail practice as a result of the pilot, and it was a minority of licensees who had responded negatively to the pilot and to the fairness of the test purchasing. This view is supported by the responses of the licensees themselves outlined above. The police respondents also shared the view that test purchasing allied with a national proof of age card scheme should be adopted across Scotland in the future.
The police interviewees reported few problems related to the pilot. They did think that it had been a very labour-intensive exercise, and had been overly bureaucratic in its early phases. However, most problems had been addressed at the start of the pilot, and few if any modifications to the approach utilised in Fife were proposed to improve test purchasing elsewhere in Scotland. Indeed, these modifications tended to address issues that arose in the pilot but which were beyond its scope. Thus, it was said that test purchasing had resulted in an increase in the number of adults acting as 'agents' and purchasing alcohol for young people, and future activities might have to address this. In addition, the pilot had shown that young people at the point of sale were more likely to sell alcohol to their peers, and a call was made for a change in the law so that no-one under the age of 18 years would be allowed to sell alcohol in the future. The general view, though, was that there was considerable merit in rolling out the pilot as it had operated in Fife in other areas of Scotland.
5.4 VIEWS OF PROCURATOR FISCAL
A fiscal with knowledge of the pilot from its developmental phase through to its impact on the criminal courts was interviewed at outcome.
The fiscal reported that one of the main reasons for the success of the pilot was that it had sought to educate and inform licensees, and had not aimed to maximise the number of licensees facing criminal proceedings after failing test purchase visits. As the fiscal had formed the view that few licensees were deliberately flouting the law in terms of alcohol sales to young people, it was stressed that support and the provision of information to licensees should be part of the enforcement programme, and the test purchasing pilot had been conducted in this way. At outcome, seven separate people (four licence holders and three employees) had been or were in the process of being prosecuted in relation to alcohol test purchasing failures at four separate licensed premises.
The interviewee stated that any problems that had arisen in the pilot, such as a lack of information being submitted in follow-up police reports, had been swiftly remedied. Indeed, the close working relationship adopted by the fiscal and Fife Police during the pilot was praised by the respondent and thought to be worth replicating elsewhere if and when alcohol test purchasing is implemented across Scotland. However, the interviewee did think it important that other areas also attempted to inform and educate licensees as part of their test purchase activities, as was the case in Fife, and counselled against the adoption of an immediate surveillance-led test purchasing regime operating in isolation. The fiscal also stressed that the ultimate deterrent of criminal prosecution should exist for any licensee who was thought to have broken the law in terms of alcohol sales to young people, if such a case were in the public interest.
5.5 VIEWS OF KEY LOCAL GROUPS
Three focus groups were convened at outcome with members of licensing boards, Fife Drug Alcohol and Action Team ( DAAT) and local community councils. With the exceptions of test purchase failures that reached the licensing boards, these groups had not had many direct dealings with the conduct of the pilot. As a result the respondents did not always have a great deal of knowledge of the pilot or how it had been running in Fife.
However, the respondents did argue that there were benefits in other areas adopting test purchasing. The pilot in Fife was thought to be successful overall, it had impacted favourably on licensees and their practice and had increased public awareness of the problems of alcohol sales (and its consequences) to young people. As was the case with other key respondent types above, the groups called for test purchasing to be used as part of the enforcement process, and for it to work alongside and not in conflict with the licensed trade. On the contrary, however, it was also stated that less scrupulous licensees would revert to old ways if test purchasing were to be used as part of a one-off drive, with no follow-up visits at later dates. Similarly, the extension of test purchasing activities to address scenarios in which either 'agents' were acting for young people, or licensees were asking for proof of age but still selling alcohol if the person claimed to be over 18 years of age. Limitations of test purchasing operating in isolation were also noted by these groups, and its likely effect on drinking cultures was thought to be minimal, compared with wider issues such as the relatively cheap cost of alcohol at present.
5.6 TEST PURCHASE VISITS
At outcome the research team analysed 900 data sheets provided by Fife Police after test purchase visits had been attempted. The bulk of the analysis focused on the first test visits in which a purchase was actually attempted (n=692), as first visits are the best gauge of the retail practice of shop and bar staff.
During first test purchases 20% of premises failed the test purchase visit. Given the publicity launch, the media coverage and pilot information events for licensees, as well as actual visits to bars and shops carried out by police officers, the fact that one in five premises failed the first visit is arguably quite high. It is also important to note that on and off sale outlets of all types (apart from off licences) failed first test purchase visits. However, only 7% of premises failed the test purchase revisit, suggesting that the first visit had a great impact on the practice of shop and bar staff. In total, taking all types of test purchases into account, 17.6% of shops, bars and nightclubs failed the test. Due to the fact that licensees were often not on the premises during test purchase visits, police were only able to inform about one-third of licensees immediately after the test that they had been subject to a visit. However, interviews with 130 licensees at impact and outcome demonstrate that those that represented premises that had failed or passed the test were aware of the visit and its result.
Test purchase failure during first visits was related to:
- Area of Fife (26% failed in Western Fife compared with 16% in Eastern Fife). Eastern Fife does tend to be an area of higher socioeconomic status and is a more rural environment compared with the other areas of Fife, which might explain its relatively low level of test failure. It is possible that the increased level of test purchase failure also observed between Western and Central Fife might be due to pre-existing cultural aspects, with a drinking culture predominating in Western Fife whereas higher levels of use of other drugs is noted in Central Fife, according to previous police experience in dealing with incidents in these two areas. This might result in a culture in Western Fife in which alcohol sales to young people are more common due to increased demand. It is also possible that there was a 'volunteer effect', as occurred in the tobacco pilot, with specific volunteers in different areas achieving higher rates of alcohol sales.
- 'On' versus 'Off' Sales (Eastern Fife only: 22% of on sales failed compared with 7% of off sales). It is difficult to explain why this pattern of sale occurred in Eastern Fife.
- Sex of volunteer (Central Fife only: 24% of male volunteers were sold alcohol compared with 13% of females).
- Advancement of time after launch of pilot: (25% of outlets failed in 2007 compared with 16% of outlets between June and August 2006). This suggests that awareness of the pilot decreased over time after the launch period, and that being targeted as part of the scheme greatly increased licensee knowledge and awareness (see licensee interviews above).
- Junior staff being at the point of sale (23% of junior staff failed compared with 12% of licensees). This demonstrates the importance of training of staff, and might also reflect the view expressed by police interviewees that young people are quite likely to sell alcohol to their peers.
- Awareness of radio adverts. Those that claimed to have heard these adverts were much less likely to fail the test. However, almost one-quarter of licensed trade staff were unsure as to whether they had heard the adverts or not, and it could be argued that those who fail test purchase tests are not as likely to say that they have heard radio adverts.
5.7 IMPLICATIONS OF THE ALCOHOL TEST PURCHASE PILOT
The main aim of the research was to review the operation of the test purchasing pilot in Fife in relation to the safety and suitability of the operating procedures, the impact of the initiative, the views of those involved, and whether the test purchasing of alcohol could be effective while protecting the safety of the young people involved in the scheme and taking cognisance of the views of the licensed sector.
The evaluation also addressed whether or not the procedures in place worked or whether they needed to be adapted for future test purchasing exercises. However, after consideration of the conduct of the pilot and the publication of the interim report in February 2007 the decision was taken to allow other areas of Scotland to adopt alcohol test purchasing in the future. Therefore, the final report is able to offer some guidance as to how the roll out of test purchasing might be managed across Scotland, as well as issues test purchasing might not be able to address and which might need further consideration in the future.
It should be noted that an overall assessment of the impact of the test purchase on the consumption of alcohol by under 18s in Fife was not within the scope of the research. However, the evaluation of the pilot can help answer several important and related questions. These questions were raised and formulated after discussions within the project steering group, consideration of the implications of the tobacco test purchase pilot and through an inductive process when the research team analysed the data. The key questions are:
Would it be possible to carry out test purchasing operationally across Scotland?
Yes, although the particular demands of the evaluation meant that the process was very time consuming for Fife Police, all test purchasing activities were carried out very smoothly and with little difficulty. It is likely that other areas of Scotland would not have to adopt blanket coverage of licensed premises, although this approach has its own benefits (see below). It is difficult from this pilot alone to assess how alcohol test purchasing might transfer to more urban or rural settings in Scotland, but the pilot experienced no difficulties in any area of Fife, and the tobacco test purchase pilot operated in urban and rural environments and was perceived as being very successful across the board.
Might other issues help explain test failures and the responses of licensees?
The evaluation gathered the views of licensees in the on and off sale sectors in different areas of Fife, and also analysed test purchase failures by a number of key variables. It was evident in the licensee interviews in particular that the respondents represented different ethnic backgrounds, although only one interview refusal in the entire evaluation appeared to be related to language difficulties. However, when the test purchase data sheets and interviews with licensees were examined, the factors which tended to influence response or retail practice were the category of outlet, the area of Fife, the member of staff at point of sale and progress of time after the initial launch of the pilot. Ethnic diversity did not appear to influence responses at all, and would be difficult to assess in any case as the numbers involved in the licensee interviews would be relatively small. The higher level of sales that occurred in Western Fife, however, may reflect the relative deprivation and drinking culture that exist in that particular area.
Would alcohol test purchasing have to operate in a radically different way when it is implemented in other areas of Scotland?
No, in most respects, although this might depend on the approach taken across Scotland. However, there would appear to be merit in adopting the procedures utilised by Fife Police in that the pilot ran very smoothly. For example, the recruitment and training of volunteers could be carried out in a similar fashion; both volunteers and parents praised the conduct of Fife Police and the operation of the pilot. However, it is likely that other areas would not have to cope with the unique demands of the pilot exercise, and would not target such a high percentage of outlets or return evaluation data sheets to a research team.
How effective was the publicity launch?
In that the level of test purchase failure increased as time progressed after the first wave of publicity, it is likely that the launch had an immediate but relatively short-lived impact. However, knowledge of test purchasing and awareness of the pilot among licensees did increase over the course of the pilot, but this appeared to be due to the licensed premises being subject to test purchase visits. If other areas attempt a similar publicity launch, including press, radio and television features, licensee information events and individual visits to licensees, it is likely that there will be some impact on the views and practice of licensees in the short term, but that this will not be maintained without the introduction of a more extensive test purchasing scheme. However, it is also possible that different information and awareness-raising techniques might have a greater longer-term impact than was observed during the pilot in Fife.
Would alcohol test purchasing reduce sales to underage young people?
The results of the pilot would suggest that sales to volunteers increased (in terms of first test purchases) as time progressed, but licensees were much less likely to sell alcohol to volunteers once they had been subject to a first visit. It is probable that the pilot therefore did impact on licensee retail practice in relation to all young people, and certainly an increase in the number of adults acting as 'agent purchasers' for young people was noted in the outcome phase of the research. However, it is difficult to assess the impact of the pilot in the longer term, and as was the case with the tobacco pilot the effect of an enforcement regime which includes test purchasing can only emerge over a longer period of time when and if it becomes a permanent and widely-known feature of the licensed trade environment. This pilot also shows that the education and training of licensed trade staff, which was said to increase as the pilot progressed and especially after a first test purchase failure, is vital if alcohol sales to young people are to be reduced.
Did the pilot result in a decrease in anti-social behaviour among young people in Fife?
There is no evidence that the pilot had any impact on alcohol-related crime incidents involving young people. Given other societal and cultural factors, as well as the fact that there were no control areas included in the evaluation, it would have been very difficult to equate any decrease in crime statistics involving young people under the influence of alcohol with the operation of the pilot in any case.
Should other areas adopt a 'blanket' test purchasing approach?
The pilot was very labour-intensive for Fife Police, but it is unlikely that other areas of Scotland would attempt to cover such a high percentage of licensed outlets and would instead concentrate test purchasing activities on premises which were believed to be selling alcohol to those under the age of 18 years. Yet, there appeared to be merit in the approach adopted in Fife. The greatest learning from licensees appeared to take place once their outlet had been subject to a test purchase visit. In contrast, bars and shops visited for the first time tended to be more likely to sell alcohol as time progressed, suggesting that a publicity launch is not sufficient to impact on practice. Also, the evaluation suggests that premises which failed test purchase visits were often places that would have been expected to pass, whereas intelligence-led tests often resulted in no sale of alcohol to volunteers. A way forward for other areas of Scotland might be to target as large a random sample of shops, bars and clubs as possible in the first instance, and then to also employ intelligence-led test purchasing alongside and after this initial wave of visits.
Would more widespread implementation of test purchasing meet great hostility from licensees?
On the contrary, the pilot suggests that a majority of licensees favoured alcohol test purchasing to be implemented with other measures, including the development of a robust, national proof of age card scheme. Even those licensees who failed a test purchase visit tended to rate test purchasing, in combination with other measures, as their preferred enforcement approach. There was very little or no support for the status quo or for test purchasing to operate in isolation. As might be expected, a minority of licensees were strongly critical of test purchasing, particularly among the group that had failed a test. However, most licensees thought that the test purchasing visits had been carried out fairly and supported the use of test purchasing in the future.
Would there be significant problems for volunteers and/or their families?
On the basis of this pilot exercise volunteers and their parents enjoyed the experience and would be willing to be involved in a similar way again. So few criticisms of concerns were raised by volunteers and parents that it would seem sensible to involve future test purchasers in other areas of Scotland in a similar way to the model utilised by Fife Police. However, at the time of report writing it was impossible to examine the impact on a volunteer of being cited to appear and giving evidence in court.
Would test purchasing impact greatly on the work of procurators fiscal and the courts?
The alcohol pilot had little impact on the workload of the courts at the time the evaluation was completed, although three separate cases were pending (also one licensee had offered a guilty plea to three separate charges and had been fined). As a fiscal was involved in the pilot from its planning phases to completion it did create some work for this individual and the fiscal's office. If other areas took the decision to prosecute after a first failure, and not solely after a test purchase revisit failure, the impact on procurators fiscal and the courts is likely to be greater.
Should test purchasing be implemented in isolation?
Although there was no suggestion that test purchasing would ever be implemented in isolation, it is clear that licensees would favour alcohol test purchasing to be combined with a robust national proof of age card scheme. It is likely that licensees would find test purchasing to be acceptable if it were to be combined with such an approach, or if the test purchasing were to be conducted in a similar way as to the Fife pilot, with education of licensees forming a key component of the test purchasing exercise. Still, any attempts to adopt test purchasing on its own would not be supported by licensees, or indeed any other key stakeholder group which took part in the evaluation.
Might test purchasing or the law have to adapt in the future?
Three issues were raised in the pilot which might have an impact on future test purchasing activities and/or the law concerning alcohol sales to young people. Firstly, it was claimed that some members of shop or bar staff were aware of the test purchasing modus operandi and, in particular, the need for honesty from volunteers, and would refuse to sell to test purchasers who admitted their real age but would sell to other young people if they said that they were 18 years old. If this is indeed a problem or is found to be one in the future it might be necessary for a minority of test purchase visits to allow volunteers to lie about their age, although this also has the potential to antagonise licensees. Secondly, a number of respondents mentioned that adults acting as 'agent purchasers' for young people had become much more common in Fife as the pilot progressed. Again, if this is true it might be possible to set up a test purchase scenario in which an adult is seen to buy alcohol for young volunteers in view of staff. However, adults acting as agents in this way is already against the law, and indeed it was said that charges had been brought against individuals in Fife during the pilot for this very reason, without the need for a test purchase scenario. Finally, concern was expressed that young people under the age of 18 years were occasionally responsible for selling alcohol with inadequate supervision. This was thought to be unfair for the individuals concerned, sales to young people were perceived as being very likely in such situations and a proposal was made that only those that were old enough to buy alcohol legally should be allowed to be in charge of its sale.
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