Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of making it an offence to sell a corrosive product to a person who is under the age of 21.

The Offensive Weapons Bill includes provisions to prevent the sale of the most damaging corrosives to under 18s, rather than to persons under 21. This is because the age of 18 is common for other age restricted products such as alcohol and the sale of knives. It is also based on recognition that 18 is accepted internationally as the age of a child.

Placing a statutory age restriction at 21 would set a precedent for other age restricted products and would raise discrimination issues. Corrosive products are not in themselves offensive weapons and they have many legitimate uses in the home and business and there is no evidence that adults should be denied access to these products. Retailers may, however, wish to introduce their own schemes to ask for age verification of those who look under 21 just as they do for alcohol sales.