Hospitality glossary · Compliance and safety
Challenge 25 is an age verification policy under which anyone who looks under 25 is asked for photographic ID before being sold alcohol, giving a margin of safety over the legal age of 18.
In practice
Definitions are easy. What matters is how the thing behaves in a real operation, and where it tends to go wrong.
It is not itself a law, but it is the accepted standard and is very commonly written into premises licence conditions, which makes it enforceable at your site. Accepted ID is normally a passport, a photocard driving licence, a UK armed forces card or a card carrying the PASS hologram. The scheme only works when it is paired with a refusals log and a refusal that is backed by the manager on duty every time.
Leaving an eighteen-year-old team member to enforce it alone on a Friday night. Refusing service to someone their own age in front of a group is hard, and without a duty manager who visibly backs the refusal and a logged record of it, staff give in — which is exactly what a test purchase operation is looking for.
Questions
Something here that doesn’t match what you’re seeing in your own business? That is usually worth a conversation rather than another article.
Challenge 25 is an age verification policy under which anyone who looks under 25 is asked for photographic ID before being sold alcohol, giving a margin of safety over the legal age of 18. It is not itself a law, but it is the accepted standard and is very commonly written into premises licence conditions, which makes it enforceable at your site. Accepted ID is normally a passport, a photocard driving licence, a UK armed forces card or a card carrying the PASS hologram. The scheme only works when it is paired with a refusals log and a refusal that is backed by the manager on duty every time.
Leaving an eighteen-year-old team member to enforce it alone on a Friday night. Refusing service to someone their own age in front of a group is hard, and without a duty manager who visibly backs the refusal and a logged record of it, staff give in — which is exactly what a test purchase operation is looking for.
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