15th September 2022

Written By Chris Terry

SGF latest on Scotland's Deposit Return Scheme

  • Last week, SGF issued a pre-action letter to Circularity Scotland Limited (CSL), who were appointed by Scottish Government in 2021 to administer Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). 

  • With a year to go until the introduction of the scheme in August 2023, SGF is of the opinion that the retailer handling fee levels, as presently proposed by CSL, will not cover the costs borne by retailers following the introduction of DRS. This will impact on their sustainability and business survival is at risk with potentially thousands of businesses facing closure next year.

  • SGF CEO Dr Pete Cheema OBE said: ‘’SGF have repeatedly called for CSL to explain how these retailer handling fees were calculated and to this end have met with both Lorna Slater, the Minister responsible for DRS, and CSL directly to highlight the significant risk to convenience operators and have provided evidence to CSL that the retailers handling fee is insufficient. CSL have refused to review the Retailer Handling Fee, suggesting if SGF members can’t make it work with this fee, they should opt out and not participate in the scheme, placing their businesses at risk. However, as they know, the regulations make that practically impossible.”

SGF’s Scottish Crime Report 

  • The Scottish Grocers’ Federation 2022 Crime Report – which was launched -highlights the substantial impact of crime on store owners and staff across Scotland. With 100% of respondents reporting some level of theft, abuse or violence in the previous year.

  • Shoplifting offences reached staggering levels in 2021, with almost all operators experiencing theft on a daily basis. The biggest trigger for aggression and abuse continues to be the enforcement of age restrictions and challenging customers for proof of age. While 95% of retailers also reported experiencing some form of Hate Crime, monthly. 

  • SGF figures, produced in the report, show that the annual cost of store crime for survey participants totalled £2.3 million.

 

Recorded Crime in Scotland, year ending June 2022 

  • The latest National Statistics: Recorded Crime in Scotland bulletin for the year ending June 2022 shows there was a 5% fall in police recorded crime overall compared to the same period last year.

  • This was primarily driven by a reduction in Coronavirus restrictions crimes, however the statistics (which cover the period year ending June 2022 and the previous four years) show that recorded crime is 5% lower than before the pandemic in the year ending June 2018 and has fallen by a total of 43% since 2006-07. 

 

Programme for Government – 2022-2023

  • The First Minister launched her Programme for Government on 6th September 2022 in the Scottish Parliament which set out the Scottish Government’s priorities through to the end of the Parliamentary year. The First Minister’s speech on the Programme for Government can be viewed here and the associated news release is available here . 

  • The Scottish Government has said that its immediate and overriding priority in this Programme for Government is to ensure households, businesses and other organisations, as well as the public services that support them, are protected from the worst impacts of the cost crisis.

 

UK Govt new ministerial team 

  • The full list of ministerial appointments to Liz Truss’ new government can be viewed here. Alister Jack has been reappointed as Secretary of State for Scotland.

  • Meanwhile the full copy of Prime Minister’s statement can be viewed here.

 

SGF call for your input to the Energy Cost Crisis 

  • Many businesses are struggling to cope with rising energy bills and the possibility of energy prices quadrupling over the coming months may mean producers and retailers will have to pass those costs on to customers. Over the course of the next four weeks the SGF are running a short two-minute survey to assess the impact on our members. 

  • It would be very useful to gather information from a wide range of experiences. Please complete the short survey by clicking here: 2min Energy Crisis Cost Survey


SLR Awards, 20 Year Anniversary Ceremony, 2022 

  • SGR were delighted to attend the Scottish Local Retailer Awards on Wednesday 7th September. We would like to congratulate all the fantastic winners and nominees on all their remarkable achievements through the course of the year. For a full list of all the categories and winners go to: SLR Awards

 

One month left for importers to move to single customs platform

  • Businesses importing goods only have a matter of weeks left to move across to the UK’s new streamlined customs system. Import declarations must be submitted through the new Customs Declaration Service from 1st October this year when it takes over from the Customs Handling Import and Export Freight system for import declarations.

 

Use of e-cigarettes (vapes) among adults (ASH report)

  • Action on Smoking & Health report that the proportion of the adult population using e-cigarettes has increased this year to 8.3%, the highest rate ever, amounting to 4.3 million people in Great Britain. Most current vapers are ex-smokers (57%). The proportion of adult smokers who have never tried e-cigarettes is continuing to decline slowly, down to 28% in 2022. The proportion of smokers who are current vapers has increased from 2021 (17%) to 2022 (22%).

  • As in previous years, the main reason given by ex-smokers for vaping is to help them quit (29%). The next most common reasons are to prevent relapse (19%), because they enjoy the experience (14%), and to save money (11%). The main reason given by current smokers for vaping are to cut down on smoking (17%), to save money (16%), to try to help them quit (14%) and to prevent relapse (13%). A third of smokers (32%) incorrectly believe vaping is more or equally as harmful as smoking.

 

Annual Licensing Fees must be paid by 1 October 2022

  • Annual fees have to be paid by 1 October every year or you run the risk of having the premises licence revoked. 

  • Please check with your premises licence licensing board if you haven’t received an invoice letter or email.

  • The duty is on premises licence holders to pay the annual fee not on the licensing board to send the invoice.

 

Extension of Coronavirus provisions for Alcohol Licensing

  • Regulations introduced to help organisations affected by Coronavirus, due to expire on 30th September, have now been extended from 1st October 2022.

  • The rules have now been extended in a number of areas including the regulation of Alcohol Licensing. In particular, Parts 4 and 5 of these Regulations make a number of saving provisions in relation to the alcohol and civic licensing regimes. Specifically, saving the definition of “coronavirus” in order to support subsequent saving provisions, that rely upon that definition.

  • This includes:

    • The modification to section 45 (provisional premises licence).

    • The modification to section 54 (dismissal, resignation, death etc. of premises manager) which provides additional time (28 days instead of 7 days) for the premises licence holder to notify the Licensing Board that any of the events in section 54(2) have occurred.

    • The modification to section 77 (period of effect of personal licence) which provides that where a personal licence renewal application is made and the Licensing Board has not determined the application before the expiry date, the licence will continue to have effect for a period of 6 months from its original date of expiry.

    • The modifications to sections 9A (annual functions report) and 9B (annual financial report) which provide that if a Licensing Board cannot meet its required publication date for a reason relating to coronavirus that it can publish a statement to that effect within 3 months of the end of the financial year and must instead publish the reports within 9 months of the end of the financial year.

  • Part 5 of these Regulations make a number of saving provisions in relation to the modifications made by the First Scottish Act to the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (“the 1982 Act”) and the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Skin Piercing and Tattooing) Order 2006 (SSI 2006/43) (“the 2006 Order”).

  • It saves the modifications to section 3(1), (2) and (4) of the 1982 Act (discharge of functions of licensing authorities) that provide that a licensing authority has an additional three months to reach a final decision on a licence application before a licence will be deemed to have been granted, renewed or varied (as the case may be).

  • For more details, please see the Policy Note attached to this email. If you want to know more about the Alcohol Licensing regulations introduced in the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020 please click on the following link: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2020/7/schedule/5


Covid 19 guidance 

  • Coronavirus (COVID-19): safer businesses and workplaces - Guidance for businesses and workplaces on reducing the risk of COVID-19 and supporting staff and customers. Also you can access the COVID-19 Vaccine Workplace Materials via the Scottish Government Marketing Resource Centre.


SGF & retailTRUST supporting your wellbeing

 

See the message below from the Retail Trust:

From 1832 onwards, the Retail Trust has been caring for and protecting the lives of people working in retail.

We believe the health of our colleagues provides them with the foundation to flourish in both work and life, creating a more sustainable and successful future for retail.

Retail Trust supports retail colleagues through all life events, offering emotional wellbeing resources, counselling, personal legal guidance including our free will writing service, financial guidance and debt support, our financial aid and critical incident support.

 Our services are completely free of charge and 100% confidential, available for you and the people you live with. Our telephone helpline is available 24/7 and is here to support you. Register today and put ‘SGF’ as your employer to get started.

Where do you find the guidance?

Visit retailtrust.org.uk and register today, completely free of charge to gain access to our wellbeing hub with over 500 pieces of exclusive content.

Or

Call our telephone helpline on 0808 801 0808

Chris Terry
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30th September 2022