Challenge 21
In the UK it is illegal to sell alcohol to anyone under the age of 18. This also includes selling alcohol to anyone purchasing alcohol on behalf of someone under the age of 18 and the law extends to people under 18 attempting to purchase alcohol, or even attempting to purchase alcohol for someone under 18.
In our own venues we operate a Challenge 21 Policy. This means that staff are trained to ask for ID for anyone who looks under the age of 21. Please don't take offence, they're only doing their job.
We currently accept valid Passports, UK driving licenses and PASS accredited cards.
Passports must be in date and have a photo easily recognisable as the user.
We can only accept UK Driving licenses. There are so many different styles of driving licenses around the world that we can only train out staff to recognise genuine UK photocards.
PASS accredited cards are availble for those people who may not have, or may not want to carry, a passport or UK driving license with them everywhere they go. They are fully endorsed by the Police, Trading Standards, the Home Office and the Security Industries Authority. You can find more information and apply for your very own PASS card here.
We also have application forms in our bars and at the Students' Union Offices.
If you are aged 16 or 17 you can have a glass of beer, wine or cider with a sit down meal as long as someone over 18 has purchased it. Individual premises may have their own policies and currently the venues operated by the Students' Union don't offer meals. Snacks, like hotdogs, don't count so we will only serve alcohol, and allow alchol to be consumed on our premises to people who we are satisfied are over 18.
You may be asked to provide proof of age ID at the point of entry, this may also include your ARU student card. ARU student cards do not count as proof of age. It may also be that bar staff also ask for proof of age as they are the ones selling alcohol.
We work with partner venues who may have different policies regarding personal identification so you should contact them with regards to accepted forms of ID before heading out to avoid dissapointment. It is illegal to attempt to use falsified documents which include fake IDs or using someone else's ID. We reserve the right to confiscate any proof of age ID which we believe has been used incorrectly. Anything the venue team do keep will be passed over to the local Police station by the end of the next working day.