By Nicola Carslaw BBC consumer affairs correspondent

Teenagers throughout the UK could soon have a nationally recognised ID card.

It is designed to stop them being sold products such as cigarettes, alcohol and lottery tickets when they are underage.

The new Proof of Age Standards Scheme - or PASS - is being launched by retailers and licensees with the full support of government ministers.

Age restricted products

Videos, cinema and computer games 12, 15 and 18 years Liqueur chocolates 16 Cigarettes and tobacco 16 Petrol 16 Lottery tickets, scratch cards 16 Party poppers and caps 16 Knives 16 Air guns and pellets 17 Alcohol, solvents 18 Tattooing 18 Butane gas cigarette lighter refills, fireworks 18 (source: British Retail Consortium)

It means that storeowners and shop workers will know that an ID card presented to them bearing the PASS logo has been validated by trading standards officers and contains reliable, accurate information to base a decision on whether to allow a purchase.

For shopkeepers who can be prosecuted for selling goods such as alcohol and cigarettes to underage customers, it can be a nightmare working out which ID cards are authentic and which are fakes.

Alkesh Gadher, a Spar Shopkeeper, welcoming the PASS scheme, told BBC News: "There are so many proof-of-age cards around that a logo that brings them all together is going to be really helpful.

"It will be really good if it helps change the culture so that young people will expect to show proof of age when buying alcohol, glue, cigarettes and things.

"It's embarrassing, often, having to ask people's age - and some retailers get verbal abuse or worse when they ask for proof."

Many shopkeepers take the problem of underage sales seriously.

But, many do not, as Bedfordshire Trading Standards officers, together with the local police, have been finding out.

They have been sending in 16 year olds undercover to buy alcohol.

Unofficial policemen

Since May, youngsters have been illegally sold 250 different types of alcoholic drinks by shopkeepers across the county.

Children were never asked to prove if they were aged 18 or over.

Staff who sold the drinks have been given formal cautions.

But shopkeepers complain that recent legislation puts them in the unenviable position of being unofficial policemen.

It places the onus on the company and the individual shop assistant to ensure that products are legally sold.

And yet, it can be hard to tell the age of many teenagers. Apart from anything, there are all sorts of age restricted products on sale.

Retailers say they now want the government to issue a clear No Proof-No Sale message to help change the culture and ensure underage sales are stamped out.