This year we are expecting the home office to amend licensing legislation to allow people to prove their age digitally when they buy alcohol.
Currently, and until the legislation is amended, proof of age when buying alcohol must be a physical document due to the requirement for proof of age to include a hologram or ultraviolet feature – both of which are not possible on a digital screen.
Providers of digital proof of age will need to be certified against government standards and registered on a gov.uk list. More information on the announcement can be found here.
Please note that accepting digital id for alcohol sales is not legal until the changes to legislation have been made. Please also note that accepting digital proof of age will not be mandatory, it is simply an option in addition to accepting physical proof of age.
Background
In England and Wales, the sale of alcohol is regulated under the Licensing Act 2003. This Act contains a requirement that every retail sale of alcohol must be made or authorised by a person. This means that the use of age estimation technology or any other technology to determine a person age and authorise a sale of alcohol is not permitted.
The Licensing Act 2003 (Mandatory Licensing Conditions) Order, made under the 2003 Act, requires every premises that sells alcohol to have an age verification policy relating to that premises. This age verification policy must require anyone that appears to be under 18 years of age, to produce ID on request, before being served alcohol. It goes on to say that acceptable ID is one that includes the persons photograph, date of birth and a holographic mark.
It is not possible to have a hologram on a digital screen and so to satisfy this legal requirement, the proof of age provided must be physical e.g., a driving licence, passport, military ID or PASS card.
However, after a public consultation in 2024, on whether to allow digital identities and technology to play a role in age verification for alcohol sales the Home Office have announced their intention to amend legislation to permit digital proof of age for alcohol sales.
This consultation followed a 2022 Regulatory Sandbox trial, overseen by the Home Office and the Office for Product Safety and Standards. As part of the Sandbox, 9 trials took place testing technologies that could fulfil the requirement for age verification in the retail sale of alcohol. 4 of the trials were run by Retail of Alcohol Standards Group members. The evaluation report of these 4 trials can be found here.
RASG remain supportive of legislative changes to permit digital proof of age for alcohol sales and will continue to urge government to also implement changes to permit the use of technology.