Calls for more spot checks on local sunbed providers
By Ursula Duddy
A local councillor has suggested spot checks be carried out on sunbed providers.
The proposal was made by independent councillor, Paul Gallagher, at a recent Health and Community Committee meeting of Derry City and Strabane District Council.
A report brought before the meeting showed that all 14 sunbed businesses to an underage mystery shopper or ‘test purchase’ had successfully passed the test.
The Sunbeds Act Northern Ireland 2011 came into effect in May 2012 and District Council Environmental Health Departments have a statutory duty to enforce the provisions of the Act.
The first regulation of the act is to prohibit the sale of sunbeds to those under 18 years.
The council report said: “In accordance with the requirements of the NI Sunbed Working Group (NISWG) guidance, a suitable child volunteer was selected and earlier this year they received suitable training on the test purchase exercise.
“Within the Derry City and Strabane District Council area all sunbed premises owners were informed of their responsibilities under the provisions of the Sunbeds Act (NI) 2011.
“For the purposes of this test purchase a total of 14 sunbed premises were visited within the Council area on July 18, 2017 with the child volunteer, the two premises that had sold sunbed sessions during the previous year’s test purchase exercise were also visited.”
The report added: “During this year’s exercise none of the 14 premises visited sold a session to the child volunteer.”
Sinn Féin councillor Kevin Campbell welcomed the news.
“I would like to welcome this news, it’s very important that sunbed providers have a very responsible attitude,” Cllr Campbell said.
“This is a very, very good project.”
SDLP councillor Gus Hasting also welcomed the result that the ‘instruction is clear and unequivocal and it is being obeyed’.
He added that monitoring the sunbed providers was ‘obviously working’.
However, the independent councillor Gallagher said that in future, council should not give prior warning to the businesses about the test purchase,” he said.
“This was a great success but council gave a warning to businesses that there were going to be test purchases, maybe that’s why they got 100 per cent.”
“For a real test, I don’t think we should pre-warn them about checks in the future and see if we get a different result.”
He added: “I want to welcome the fact it was 100 per cent but we must ensure the message we have already given is being sustained and that next time we get the same result.”