The consultation seeks views on proposed amendments of control measures for sales of explosives precursors and poisons under the Poisons Act 1972. The consultation is aimed at businesses that supply chemicals and chemical products, online marketplaces that facilitate the supply of chemicals and chemical products through their marketplaces and members of the public who use certain chemicals and chemical products in their hobbies in England, Scotland and Wales.

The BRC Response:

• As the BRC is a trade association and not a retailer, distributor, or manufacturer, we do not hold data on quantities or usage of the regulated explosives precursors (REPs), therefore the BRC has not answered any of the specific questions.
• Many of our members handle REPs, albeit in small, consumer quantities and not in industrial quantities.
• We have encouraged all members that handle REPs to respond individually and separately where appropriate

The Retail Sector Position

Operational Impact

• Generally, retailers feel that the three proposals are unlikely to have much impact on their operations.
• The retail sector feels that no change is needed to the current requirements
• Some retailers have approaches where till prompts alert a supervisor to the sale of products that contain REPs.

24-Hour Reporting

• There needs to be clarity on the rule around 24-hour reporting. Retailers understand the 24-hour timing will stem from a desire that incidents are reported as quickly as possible. However, it does present some operational issues.
• Firstly, if combined with providing customer data, that will involve more than 1 colleague being involved in generating reports for many retailers. Secondly, if a store raises a suspicious transaction on a Friday evening, Saturday morning etc, then currently that can’t be reported until Monday morning at the earliest. To meet a 24-hour would require a new weekend working provision. So, achieving a 24-hour time scale is operationally challenging.
  British Retail Consortium – Response to Amendments to the Poisons Act 1972
• The preferred options would be either:
  (a) to report as soon as is practicably possible, or
  (b) within 72 hours of determining a transaction is suspicious, which then covers the eventuality for any transactions which are raised on a Friday evening. Currently, Retailers understand the 24-hour deadline to be from when the data is interrogated.

Manufacturers Support

• Manufacturers could support retailers by detailing which products contain REPs.
  Sulphur
• Sulphur is present in some products at very low concentrations. To avoid these being inadvertently caught in reporting, should there be a low level of sulphur (i.e., 1%) above which sulphur is reportable?

Supplier Reporting

• If supplying a regulated or a reportable explosives precursor or poison to another supplier, they would need to inform their customer of the related restrictions or reporting obligations. Currently, a supplier might inform their customer by email, post, social media and in large organisations. There is any number of roles that could receive that information but not know what to do with it. Suggest there is a “best practice” approach to how this could work. For instance, the customer has a central email address and asks its supplier to send information to that email address.