Sales of alcohol to children

Will changes to the legislation on sales of alcohol to children make a great deal of difference? Paddy Whur reports on recent developments.

The offence of persistently selling alcohol to children was introduced to the Licensing Act in April 2007, having not been part of the original legislation, it being introduced by the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006. 

The industry was immediately nervous about the fact that a premises licence holder could face up to three months' suspension of their licence and a fine of up to £10,000 if they suffered three failed underage test purchases within a three month period. Training of staff suddenly increased and we saw a huge buy in by the trade to Challenge 21 initiatives.

Also introduced was the ability to accept a voluntary closure for up to 48 hours at a time chosen by the Authority, instead of facing prosecution before the Magistrates’ Court.

In most of the instances that we have been involved in the operator has accepted the voluntary closure as they have assessed that this would be a lesser sanction then facing having to mitigate before the Magistrates’ Court. 

I can still remember looking at law in the first case I was instructed in under the legislation. I realised that having proved the three failed test purchases by fixed penalties to the individual sellers we were down to mitigation only as there was no defence of due diligence, as provided in other sections of the Licensing Act 2003. No arguments about who the seller of the alcohol was as the offence was specifically committed by the premises licence holder due to the acts of his employees. Quite a serious penalty for an offence which needs no mental element to be present by the premises licence holder.

However, Trading Standards and the Police reported back to Government that it was particularly difficult to obtain three failed test purchases in a three month period. The Government listened and reduced the persistent element from three to two in a three-month period. This again caught the eye of the trade and training and due diligence packages were again improved, with operators undertaking their own test purchases with young looking 18 year olds to see how robust challenge 21 and then challenge 25 requests for identification were being carried out.

The new Coalition Government then announced as one of its commitments on alcohol that “we will double the maximum fine for underage alcohol sales to £20,000.” This was introduced last month along with an increase in the voluntary closure  from a 48-hour period to a period of between 48 hours and two weeks. Officers also retain the ability to choose when the closure should take effect and also now, how long it should be for.

It will be interesting to see what impact this now has. We are told that the average fine across the country for the criminal offence has been under £2,000. The Government want to see an increase in these figures and are hoping that the Magistrates will set sentencing guidelines to see the fine level raise sharply.

We have seen a massive improvement in the training and due diligence packages of operators in relation to underage sales through on and off sales operators. Regular training, update training, interactive training, DVD and role play, test purchasing of own premises, good management controls, taking away the point of conflict on staff through challenge 25, till prompts on alcohol bar coded products showing the correct date of birth on the tills, support from effective management and knowledge of the consequences of the sale are all key issues to promote responsible retailing.

I have just carried out a training session for Trading Standards in Yorkshire and one of the key messages still being heard is that parents are still thinking it is OK for them to give alcohol to their children to go to parties, camping trips and to consume in public places. There is a reluctance to criminalise the parent and the child for offences created in the Licensing Act, but there was a strong view at the training day that there is a serious need for a change in thinking as to how alcohol can quite easily be introduced to young children and sometimes in vulnerable environments – without it being sold directly to them.

 We have found that early action and quality systems are cost effective for operators as they reduce the need to defend reviews and prepare for prosecution.

One final issue is the wording of the offence: two failures in three consecutive months. We recently had a police force attempting to allege the offence had been committed when the failed test purchases were on 2 December and 2 March. We successfully argued that under Section 5 and Schedule 1 of the Interpretation Act 1978 that “month” means calendar month and that, therefore, the offence was not made out as the failures occurred in four consecutive months and not three.

Paddy Woods is a partner at Woods Whur. He can be contacted on 0113 234 3055 or by This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..