Issues | Scottish Government Response |
Criticism of proposed timetable being too ambitious against background of Licensing Authorities having to put in place arrangements to deal with applications whilst they are currently hard pressed to introduce new alcohol licensing regime by 1 September 2009. | Accept some delay to full implementation. Revised timescale above. |
ACPOS suggested additional regulation of private transactions and sales over the internet. | Private transactions fall outwith the ambit of scheme and would require changes to the primary legislation. Internet sales are inherently hard to regulate. Anyone selling from Scotland will require a licence and will need to comply with the requirements to establish the identity of their customers. We will also work with the UK Government to investigate possibilities for co-operation to regulate sales from outwith Scotland. |
ACPOS also suggested imposing a 'fit and proper' test before a licence is issued. | As the licensing scheme will be established under the arrangements outlined in the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982, there already exists a general right to make objections and representations before the issue of a licence. We believe this power is sufficient for the Police to object where they have concerns about a particular applicant. The 1982 Act specifically gives licensing authorities the power to refuse a licence where it considers that the applicant is not 'fit and proper.' |
Prominent signage indicating the minimum age of purchase and the requirement to prove age. | We accept this proposal. |
A register of individuals refused a purchase. | We consider this should be a discretionary condition for authorities to consider at a local level rather than a nationally imposed condition. |
Background checks for purchasers. | This would represent a significant departure from the scheme as proposed and would require a change to the primary legislation. Therefore, we do not intend to take this forward at this time. |
Nationally approved training. | Training is probably unnecessary since the requirements of licensing are not particularly complex. In addition it is doubtful whether a training provider would wish to develop a suitable course given the numbers involved. |
A ban on all public displays of knives i.e. all knives stored 'under the counter' or in a storage area. | We consider this should be a discretionary condition for authorities to consider at a local level rather than a nationally imposed condition. Furthermore, authorities may wish to apply such a condition to particular premises rather than to all premises in the area. |
Requirement to have CCTV. | We consider this should be a discretionary condition for authorities to consider at a local level rather than a nationally imposed condition. Furthermore, authorities may wish to apply such a condition to particular premises rather than to all premises in the area. |
Prescribing locked cabinets. | We consider this should be a discretionary condition for authorities to consider at a local level rather than a nationally imposed condition. |
Minimum age of 18 for those who sell knives. | This may be appropriate in some circumstances or it may be that, as for alcohol, sales of knives by young people should be supervised by a person over 18. However we consider this should be a discretionary condition for authorities to consider at a local level rather than a nationally imposed condition. |
One respondent criticised the drafting of the order on licence conditions as it may inadvertently require proof of age checks on all purchasers including people very obviously over 18. | We accept that the wording of the order should be tightened so as to ensure consistency with the Criminal Law and Licensing Bill which will set out the proof of age requirements and ensure that proof of age will only be required where there is a reasonable doubt as to the age of the purchaser. |
The effect on the trade of selling to tourists wishing to purchase heritage or highland dress products since they will find it hard to meet proof of identity requirements. | This may be a consequence of the scheme but there is no practical way of exempting tourists from the requirements of the licensing scheme. Tourists will still be able to make purchases of sgian dubhs or other small knives that have a length of blade of under three and a half inches as these are exempt from the licensing scheme. |
It was suggested that for internet and mail order sales the purchaser should attend in person to establish their identity. | The measure does not seem practical and appears hard to enforce. Internet sales are always going to be difficult to regulate (although any dealer operating out of Scotland will have to comply with licensing requirements) but that does not undermine the case for licensing. We will work with the UK Government to investigate the possibilities for regulation of sales from outwith Scotland. |
We suggested in the consultation that records should be retained for a year. | Many respondents felt that this was inadequate and we, therefore, propose that records should be retained for not less than three years. |
ACPOS proposed that a bound register should be retained to record transaction details. | We do not consider that we need to prescribe to this level of detail as a mandatory condition. Licence holders will have to retain proper records whether by computer or written and we do not consider we need to go further than this. |
One respondent felt that it would be burdensome for them to have to have scanning or photocopying facilities to take copies of documents. | We feel that these items can be purchased without great cost and it is not an unreasonable 'cost of doing business' for those who wish to sell knives. |
One respondent suggested that serial numbers should be etched onto knives as a means of tracking a particular knife. | This would greatly add to the costs of the proposed system and it would be hard to establish a system that successfully tracks knives. We do not propose to establish such a system at this time. |
It was suggested that it should be a mandatory condition that licence holders should have to comply with the Data Protection Act. | Licence holders will have to comply with data protection requirements irrespective of whether it is listed specifically as a condition. |
ACPOS suggested more stringent requirements as part of the additional requirements for those wishing to purchase a sword. We proposed in the consultation that a membership card or letter from a club official establishing that a purchaser has a 'good reason' for making a purchase. Concern was raised by some respondents that these documents could be easily forged and that dealers should check back with the relevant club, or that a referee should be required as in the passport application process. | There is merit in these suggestions, however, the intention of the scheme is to make it harder for weapons to fall into the wrong hands. By introducing a scheme that is too onerous, complicated or bureaucratic we may succeed in making life too difficult for law abiding, responsible users of swords. We, therefore, do not propose to accept these proposals. |
One local authority held the view that there should be as much consistency across Scotland and therefore most conditions should be mandatory. | We consider it important to give local licensing authorities the discretion to establish schemes appropriate to their area and that have the flexibility to deal with the peculiarities on an individual application. Therefore we intend to keep mandatory conditions to a minimum, and leave most matters to local resolution via discretionary conditions. |
One respondent raised concern that use of the term 'non-domestic knife' could give rise to confusion and requested something more precise. | Due to the difficulty of trying to define what is covered by the scheme in terms of length of blade or design we have deliberately left it to the courts to decide case by case whether a knife is non-domestic. Where there is any doubt retailers should obtain a licence. |
The Federation of Small Businesses felt that a further Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) should be conducted in addition to the one conducted at the time of the Act. | We do not consider that a further full RIA is required, however, we will update the RIA conducted as part of the 2007 Act. |
Some trade responses felt there should be an exemption from licensing for those dealers who already hold a registered firearms dealer certificate. | As firearms is a reserved matter it is not possible to conjoin the issues as we are unable to attach conditions relating to knives to the conditions of a registered firearms dealer. |