Poppleston Allen associate solicitor Joe Harvey outlined the latest information at The Morning Advertiser‘s MA Leaders Club event in Norwich earlier this month (Wednesday 8 October).
Harvey said: “The Government has, for some time, been proposing an overhaul of age verification procedures.
“Every single licence in the country has a mandatory age verification policy condition, which currently states the only forms of identification, you are able to accept are those, which bear a photograph, date of birth and a holographic mark.
“The Government has passed the law [and] the Data (Use and Access) Bill became law in June this year.
“We don’t yet know how operators are going to be implementing this but the idea is you have an app, which is your age verification.”
No operator obligation
While the new system is on the horizon, there has not been any confirmed technology and little guidance, resulting in a lack of detail about the move.
“Whether that is done by a QR code, which rotates so you can’t screenshot it, send it to your best mate and they can use it to buy drinks, or whether it is near field communication (NFC) - the kind of thing you tap in on for the Underground - when you pay for you drinks,” Harvey added.
“The idea is it is going to be one of those systems but they do not yet know which one it is going to be and they haven’t told operators how they are going to be able to implement this in their premises.
“Whether you are going to have to invest in new kit, which reads the information or whether or not you are going to have an individual program or app or if every point of sale (PoS) is going to be overhauled, we do not yet know this detail.
“What is clear however, is there is no obligation at this stage, on the premises to utilise this [but] the Government will want you to for a whole host of reasons.”
Implementation plan
He also highlighted how while original plans were to introduce digital IDs by this Christmas, it is more probably it will be rolled out in 2026.
Harvey said: “The Government is rolling this out. At the moment, there is no time scale for this but we wait to receive it.
“The best suggestion is likely to be winter next year.”
Poppleston Allen solicitor Elizabeth Varley previous highlighted what we know about digital IDs so far.
What are the pros and cons of digital IDs?
Pros
- Seamless checks
- Reduce waiting times
- Reduce the risk of fake ID
- Crime prevention intelligence
Cons
- No definitive start date yet
- No info on how it will work in practice
- Lack of detail on the cost to businesses
- Data security risk
