COMMENTARY ON SECTIONS PART 7: Offences. Section 154 – Enforcement role for weights and measures authorities
243.This provision re-enacts section 169I of the Licensing Act 1964 which confers on weights and measures authorities the role of conducting test purchase operations to check retailers’ compliance with the prohibition on underage sales. In practice, these activities are usually carried out by trading standards officers. Subsection (2) provides that a weights and measures inspector may either make purchases himself or may authorise another person to do so. Thus, for example, he might lawfully ask a child to attempt to purchase alcohol.