The good news is that the prohibition on young people under 18 working in a bar has disappeared. Previously, junior staff could do no work when the bar was open.
They could stock up and clean outside permitted hours, but were prohibited from carrying out any duties when the bar was serving. This included the children of the licensee.
Now, there is no such restriction. Both employed youngsters and the children of the person running the premises can freely work in the bar. They are not required to be enrolled on any form of apprenticeship, but attention has to be paid to any local bylaws restricting the employment of children of school age during term time.
But what about selling drinks? Even this is now permitted, in line with the procedure that has existed in supermarkets for some time. But the greatest care has to be taken to comply strictly with the law, or you risk problems with the licence.
The new requirement is that if a person under 18 is actually selling alcohol on the premises, each and every sale must be specifically approved by what is called a ‘responsible person’.
This does not mean a general approval, given at the beginning of a shift. It means something similar to the supermarket system, where a junior check-out cashier alerts the supervisor to the making of a sale of alcohol, which has probably been flagged up on her screen.
The responsible person that gives the approval may be any one of the premises licence holder, the designated premises supervisor (DPS) or another member of staff who is over 18 and has been authorised to give this approval, either by the DPS or the premises licence holder.
This, of course, makes it difficult to employ someone under 18 as a normal member of the bar team, because they need a ‘minder’ all the time. It will only come into play if, during the course of other work such as serving meals, they are asked for drinks. They can then fulfil that order through an adult member of staff at the bar.