The on-trade performed better than the off-trade in asking young people for ID for the first time in the second quarter of 2009.
The figures come from test purchase operation Serve Legal, which is employed to check staff are adhering to best practice guidelines.
Serve Legal's team of 18 and 19 year-olds visited 1179 on trade premises and 10,480 in the off-trade in the first six months of 2009.
The pass rate for the on-trade — where staff asked for and checked ID — was 67% in the first quarter and 71% in the second quarter compared to an overall 69% success rate in the off-trade.
Both the on and the off-trades are improving with the overall pass rate up from 54% in 2008 in the on and 66% in the off-trade on last year.
The best performing region was Scotland (75%), followed by Wales (73%) and East Anglia (72%). The worst performing region was Northern Ireland with a 57% pass rate.
Looking ahead, Serve Legal believes:
• Alcohol sales to underage people will remain at the top of the agenda but tobacco and knife sales will move higher up
• As the recession bites, lower investment in the underage issue by some pubcos and grocery retailers (in training, self- testing etc) may lead to a drop-off in performance for those retailers
• Underage drinkers will continue to innovate to find new ways to purchase alcohol
"For 2010 and beyond, the Government must and will, we believe, bring greater consistency and clarity to legislation and focus on enforcing — rather than changing — existing laws," said Serve Legal director Charlie Mowat.
