Sales ban failing in 'acid attack capital of Britain'

Newham has been labelled the ‘acid attack capital of Britain’.

In response to almost 300 violent offences involving corrosive fluids between 2015-17, Newham Council introduced a voluntary scheme for local shops to agree to stop selling corrosive substances to under 21 year olds.

5 live Investigates followed an undercover investigation by Newham Trading Standards to see if they sold corrosive substances to 14-year-old ‘Annie’ in shops that had signed up to the scheme.

They found that three out of five shops sold her corrosive substances.

In a statement, the Home Office said: "We are considering responses to our consultation on legislative proposals to prohibit sales of corrosive products to under 18s and creating a new possession offence, and have put in place a set of voluntary commitments with retailers to restrict access to most harmful products.

"The Home Secretary announced in July 2017 an action plan to tackle the use of corrosive substances in violent attacks and we are making good progress on implementing this."

This clip is taken from 5 live Investigates on Sunday 25th February 2018.

Video Journalist: Matthew Sydney