Pubs will have power to seize illegal IDs

The Home Office is to issue guidance on how pub and door staff can legally seize ID by the end of February.

Deirdre Dent, head of alcohol policy implementation at the Home Office, told the National Pubwatch Conference that it came about after "several" police forces had expressed concern about the legal situation.

"It is quite confusing and a lot of [police] forces have different legal interpretations, so therefore people were coming up with problems and there was no consistency.

"At the same time we had National Pubwatch approach us to say there's an issue of doorstaff and premises not knowing whether or not they had the power to confiscate."

The guidance will include sections for venues, doorstaff, and police.

Pubs will be given advice on storage, with suggestions they can keep IDs for up to 72 hours. They will also be advised on "audit" trails, including issuing receipts and the importance of incident books.

For doorstaff, there's extra advice on how to tell whether the documents are genuine; for example, by asking the holder to state their star sign.

Dent said the guidance is awaiting approval from ministers and should be available on-line by the end of this month.

Nick Harmston, group operations director of Hertfordshire-based Stort Leisure, campaigned for greater clarity on powers to seize IDs when was a bar manager in Essex in 2009.

He welcomed news of the new guidance. "We need consistency among all licensees and doorstaff so we are all singing from the same hymn sheet."

Harmston said on average between four and six IDs are seized on Fridays and Saturdays at the company's Scorch nightclub in Bishop's Stortford. However, police recently said they no longer have the resources to deal with the documents.

Military ID​

Military ID could soon be added to the list of documents deemed "acceptable" as ID in pubs.

The upcoming guidance will spell out which IDs should be accepted in pubs and how to identify them. This includes passports, driving licences and PASS-accredited cards.

Mark Halton, of the drug and alcohol unit at the Home Office, said: "I think it's highly likely that we may get a positive on military IDs.

"We are still awaiting comeback from the MoD [Ministry of Defence]."

Halton raised the problem of venues wishing to seize military ID that they think is being used fraudulently to buy alcohol. "It's a huge no, no," he stressed.