Alcohol retailers awaiting digital age checks lay out what they want from a solution

It’s clear how age assurance providers feel about age check technology. But what are UK retailers looking for from biometric and digital-ID based age assurance tools. A session at the 2026 Global Age Assurance Standards Summit, hosted by the Retail of Alcohol Standards Group (RASG), sees representatives from four UK retailers explain what they’re looking for from digital ID.

A sense of simmering frustration sits over the discussion. The big-ticket promise that Brits would be able to buy a pint using digital ID to prove their age by Christmas 2025, thanks to updates to the mandatory licensing conditions, is now a laughable memory. Ewen McGregor, a licensing lawyer at TLT LLP tasked with chairing the panel, begins with the sincere wish that he doesn’t end up in the same seat, making the same case at next year’s summit.

In other words, a path to implementation is long past due. But for retailers – especially grocers and department stores, where alcohol is not the main product – change must serve their customers, and their business.

Key digital ID asks for retailers include interoperability, offline function

Andrew Leaper, retail safety manager for Co-op, says a key requirement is that it can’t complicate the checkout process. “It needs to be really easy,” he says, especially for older people who may not be as comfortable with digital devices as younger generations. “People don’t want to feel embarrassed” because they can’t sort out how to present digital ID for a transaction. Moreover, if someone spends minutes fumbling at the cash, that’s time that, in bulk, translates to cost.

Outside of speed and convenience at the till, a core benefit of digital ID for age checks at retail is how they reduce the possibility for conflict or aggression directed at employees. If it’s a computer saying no to a customer, rather than a person, the window for argument is much smaller.

Johnathan Whytock, who works as operations development manager for major supermarket chain Tesco, points to regulatory compliance as a key driver. For this reason and more, he lists trust as a number one priority for a provider. He stands behind the UK trust framework model as a good way to vet and certify trusted companies in the space.

Other key asks are for offline functionality (Leaper points out that, for festivals, “sometimes we’re setting up a shop in a field”) and interoperability across apps and devices.

There is also a question of passability, so to speak. Sarah Gregory-Anderson, compliance manager for the iconic Marks & Spencer, says a digital ID “needs to look legit.” Quality, in other words, can promote trust.

Ideally, functions will eventually converge, combining Challenge 25 (which RASG started), ID verification, loyalty cards and payments.

Shift to digital ID should feel invisible to consumers

Overall, the ask is for technology that improves business and the customer journey – but, as much as possible, without customers noticing. The responses shine a cold light on a hard truth: age assurance is cutting edge tech that applies to a wide range of use cases, and the debate over age checks for social media make headlines. But for many people in the UK, especially in older generations, an experience with age assurance will involve simply trying to buy a bottle of wine or ale at the grocer’s.

Hence the need for a smooth transition that factors in a general suspicion toward change among older folks, while also serving younger customers who are asking for digital options for proof of age. Speed, compliance, reduced conflict, customer choice; trust, safety and interoperability: these are the qualities that alcohol retailers will be seeking when they go shopping for age assurance products.

And when might that be? The broken promise of Peter Kyle, the UK tech secretary who promised digital age checks at pubs by Christmas, still needs legislative work. But even once age assurance with digital ID gets the green light, implementation will not be instant. Whytock estimates needing 12 to 20 months to get a system up and running functionally. (In that context, Kyle’s promise was only ever a fantasy; Leaper says that when the announcement was made in December 2024, “we all spat out coffee out at the time.”)

Overall, there is hope that the government will move, but not especially fast. Given that, spare a moment in your thoughts for poor Ewen McGregor, who may very well find himself in the same chair at the 2027 summit.

Article Topics

Age Assurance Standards Summit (2026)  |  age verification  |  retail biometrics  |  UK digital ID