FREEDOM FROM FEAR CAMPAIGN
- Session: 2008-09
- Date tabled: 14.10.2009
- Primary sponsor:
- Sponsors:
That this House congratulates the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) on its groundbreaking Freedom from Fear campaign, which seeks to prevent violence, threats and abuse against shopworkers; welcomes the Government's continued investment in policing and community safety, which has led to a 35 per cent. decrease in crime; further welcomes the Government's commitment to using a range of measures to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour, such as anti-social behaviour orders, acceptable behaviour contracts, closed circuit television and neighbourhood policing; is concerned that there is too much onus on the individual shopworker to police the sale of age-restricted goods; is further concerned that some of the prosecuting authorities do not understand the difficult job shopworkers have policing age-related sales; notes that age-related sales are a major cause of incidents of violence, threats and abuse against shopworkers; calls on the Government to redress the balance by working with retailers to run a high profile campaign, ensuring that young people know that it is an offence to attempt to buy alcohol under-age; further calls on the Government to review the law and extend the attempting to buy offence to all age-restricted products; and further calls on hon. Members to support USDAW's Respect for Shopworkers Week, 2 to 6 November 2009, which asks customers to `keep your cool at Christmas'.