Businesses that sell age-restricted products have a legal responsibility to ensure that they protect their customers who are underage from accessing these products. Premises also have responsibility to ensure they don't sell alcohol to someone who is already intoxicated, or where it is believed the item is intended for someone underage.
Most modern till systems have the facility to prompt staff members to consider the customers age and their suitability for sale, when attempts to purchase age related products are made. This may be in the form or a prompt box reminding staff to implement ‘Challenge 25’ or to check if the customer is intoxicated.
These systems also have the ability to record all challenges made and provide a report of these challenges for training purposes and evidence gathering.
If you don’t have a till system that can do this, don’t worry. You can print out the log template below, which you can kept behind the till for all staff to access. Don’t forget to train staff members on what is expected of them, and ensure they know where the log is kept. Position the log near to the point of sale, where every staff member has access.
It is important to remember that, whilst recording under age challenges of sale is important, it is just as important to record where you have refused the sale of alcohol because you believe the person is already too intoxicated, or you believe that an adult is intending to provide the alcohol to a minor (proxy sale).
Even if you ask for ID on the sale of an age restricted product and valid ID is provided, it is very good practice to record that you have asked for this information and you have seen it every time a challenge is made. It shows that you are regularly checking which is great for due-diligence and you may even see a pattern emerge which could allow you to tailor your staff resourcing accordingly.
