Age verification policy

This condition is to ensure that all licensed premises ensure they do not sell alcohol to minors. 

The premises licence holder or club premises certificate holder must ensure that an age verification policy applies to the premises in relation to the sale or supply of alcohol.

The policy must at a minimum, require any individuals who look to be under 18 to have to show identification with a photo, date of birth and holographic mark on request, before being served alcohol.

Mandatory Condition 5

1. The premises licence holder or club premises certificate holder must ensure that an age verification policy is adopted in respect of the premises in relation to the sale or supply of alcohol.
2. The designated premises supervisor for the premises licence must ensure that the supply of alcohol at the premises is carried out to meet the age verification policy.
3. The policy must require individuals who look to be under 18 years of age (or as old as specified in the policy) to produce identification with their photo, date of birth and a holographic mark or an ultraviolet feature on request, before being served alcohol.

Guidance relating to this condition

The premises licence holder or club premises certificate holder must ensure that staff (in particular, staff who are involved in the supply of alcohol) know about the premises' age verification policy.

The designated premises supervisor (if there is one) must ensure that the supply of alcohol at the premises is carried on in accordance with the age verification policy. This means that the DPS has personal responsibility for ensuring that staff are aware of and are also applying the age verification policy.

It is acceptable for premises to have an age verification policy which requires individuals who appear to the responsible person to be under an age greater than 18 to produce such identification on request. For example, if premises have a policy that requires any individual that appears to be under the age of 21 to produce identification that meets the criteria.

Licence holders should consider what steps they need to take to comply with the age verification requirements under the 2003 Act in relation to sales of alcohol made remotely. These include sales made online, by telephone and mail order sales, and alcohol delivery services. Each of these sales must comply with the requirements of the 2003 act.

The mandatory condition requires that age verification takes place before a person is served alcohol. If alcohol is sold remotely (for example online) or by phone, the sale is made at this point but the alcohol is not actually served until it is delivered to the customer. Age verification measures (for example online age verification) should be used to ensure that alcohol is not sold to any person under the age of 18. However, licence holders should also consider what steps are appropriate to ensure that age verification takes place before the alcohol is served (such as physically delivered) to the customer to be satisfied that the customer is aged 18 or over. It is the responsibility of the person serving or delivering the alcohol to ensure that age verification has taken place and that photo ID has been checked if the person appears to be less than 18 years of age.

The law does not say in detail what you must or must not do, so there is flexibility as to how you meet the requirements. For example the policy adopted in an independent convenience store may be very different to that applied in a nightclub or a major supermarket.

Our guidance has been developed with local retailers in mind and suggests what we consider to be best practice. You may choose to do things differently but must be able to show that your policy meets the mandatory condition.

Download a minimum standard Age Verification Policy).