The rules here are for England and Wales. The law puts the offence on the person who makes the sale, and your business can be prosecuted for what a member of staff does.
Know the minimum ages
You must not sell corrosive products, as the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 defines them, to anyone under 18, and that rule applies across the UK. Energy drinks have a separate age rule of their own.
Set up an age check
Apply the same check to every restricted product on your shelves, not only alcohol.
Keep records and train staff
No law requires a refusals log or a set training cycle, but both are the evidence you rely on if a sale is challenged.
- Train each person who works a till before their first shift, and note when they were trained.
- Watch for adults buying on behalf of someone under age. Buying alcohol for an under-18 is an offence.
Expect test purchases
The law lets a young person buy alcohol at the request of a police constable or a weights and measures inspector who is acting in the course of their duty. Trading Standards uses this to run test purchases, and you will not be told beforehand. A sale during a test is treated as a sale like any other.
Rely on the due diligence defence
For most of these offences it is a defence to show you took reasonable steps or exercised all due diligence. For alcohol, you must show you believed the buyer was 18 or over and either asked for evidence of age that would have convinced a reasonable person or that nobody could reasonably have suspected they were under 18. If the sale was made by an employee, your defence is that you exercised all due diligence to avoid the offence. A written policy, trained staff, till prompts and a refusals log are how you show that.
Know what a breach costs
Legal basis
Primary legislation and key regulations