Digital Proofs of Age for Alcohol Sales: New Regulations Laid Before Parliament

The Government has today laid before Parliament the Licensing Act 2003 (Mandatory Licensing Conditions) (Amendment) Order 2026.

Subject to parliamentary approval and commencement, the Order will permit retailers and hospitality businesses in England and Wales to accept digital age-verification credentials when selling or supplying alcohol. Digital proofs of age may only be accepted where the statutory requirements are satisfied, and any relevant premises licence conditions are observed.

A key feature of the proposed regime is that licence holders must not rely solely on visual inspection of a digital proof of age. Advances in technology mean that highly convincing digital replicas of identity documents, websites and mobile applications can be created with relative ease, making it increasingly difficult to determine authenticity simply by looking at what is displayed on a screen.

For that reason, the Order requires digital age checks to be carried out using technology-based verification, often referred to as a programmatic check (an automated electronic verification carried out by software rather than by a member of staff visually inspecting a document or app). Rather than relying on a member of staff to decide whether a digital credential appears genuine, a programmatic check electronically verifies that the credential has been issued by a trusted provider, remains valid and has not been altered or tampered with. The Government considers this to be the only reliable means of validating a digital proof of age.

To facilitate those checks, licence holders wishing to accept digital proof of age must use a digital verification service (DVS) that is listed on the Government's DVS Register at the time of the transaction. A digital proof of age will satisfy the requirements of the Order only where both the service used to issue the credential and the service used to verify the customer's age are included on the Register.

Inclusion on the DVS Register confirms that a service meets the standards set out in the Government's DVS Trust Framework. However, registration alone does not demonstrate compliance with the Mandatory Licensing Conditions. Licence holders will remain responsible for assessing whether a particular DVS is suitable for their operational and legal requirements and should ensure, through appropriate contractual arrangements and other controls, that the service continues to meet those requirements on an ongoing basis.

While the Government has established the legal framework for the use of digital age verification, it has not prescribed the operational processes by which businesses must conduct age checks. Licence holders therefore retain discretion as to whether, and how, they choose to accept digital proofs of age, provided that their procedures comply with the Mandatory Licensing Conditions.