Underage sales prevention, drugs awareness and support for the Designated Premises Supervisor role, for pubs, bars, clubs, off-licences, convenience stores and hotels. The law gives licence holders a defence built on evidence, not intention, and evidence means a written policy, dated training and signed records, not a manager's word that staff know the rules.
Stated as the underlying legislation sets it out, nothing more.
Section 146 makes it an offence to sell alcohol to a person under 18, with a fine with no upper cap for offences committed on or after 12 March 2015. Section 147 covers knowingly allowing such a sale. Section 147A, persistent selling, applies where alcohol is unlawfully sold to an under 18 on the same premises on three or more occasions in three consecutive months: a fine of up to 20,000 pounds, a closure notice from police or trading standards, and the court may suspend the alcohol part of the premises licence for up to three months.
Challenge 25, asking anyone who appears under 25 for photographic ID before completing a sale of alcohol, is industry best practice and the accepted standard. It is not a statutory duty. PHW's training tells staff it is the venue's policy and that departing from it is a disciplinary matter, never that it is the law.
Section 146 gives a defence where the seller believed the individual was 18 or over and took all reasonable steps to establish age, and a separate defence where the licence holder is charged over an act or default by a member of staff and can show all due diligence was exercised so as not to commit the offence. That defence is only ever as good as the evidence behind it: a written policy, dated training records, staff sign-off on what they were taught, and a completed refusals register. An opinion that staff know the rules is not a defence; the paperwork is.
Section 8 makes it an offence for an occupier, or a person concerned in the management of premises, to knowingly permit the production, supply or use of controlled drugs on those premises. Knowingly permit includes turning a blind eye. The Licensing Act 2003 sets four licensing objectives, and the first is the prevention of crime and disorder. Drug activity on premises goes directly to that objective, and it is a common reason a premises licence is called in for review by the police. A review can add conditions, cut hours, remove the DPS or revoke the licence entirely.
Section 19 imposes a mandatory condition on every premises licence that authorises the sale of alcohol: the licence must specify an individual as DPS, and that person must hold a valid personal licence. Where there is no validly specified DPS, or the specified DPS's personal licence has lapsed, the premises is not authorised to sell alcohol; selling anyway is an offence under section 136, a fine with no upper cap and up to six months' imprisonment on summary conviction, for conduct on or after 12 March 2015.
Two document packs, sold together or on their own, and the training that goes with them. Prices and buying are on the PHW shop; this page covers what each pack is for.
Both packs are scoped to licensed premises: alcohol sales and drugs on the premises. They do not cover food safety, fire safety or general workplace health and safety, which sit in PHW's separate safety pack range.
Operational support for a Designated Premises Supervisor, not the personal licence itself.
To be named DPS on a premises licence, an individual must hold a valid personal licence, and a personal licence is only obtained by passing a regulated licensing qualification from an accredited awarding body. PHW does not award personal licences and this pack is not that qualification. It is training and paperwork that supports a DPS who already holds a genuine personal licence: role and responsibilities policy, staff and deputy training, a knowledge test, a delegation and absence register for when the DPS is off-site, and a licence review response and escalation policy. It is never marketed as the DPS qualification or as a personal licence course.
A due diligence defence needs a record that outlasts the shift the training happened on.
Each pack keeps its own dated training records: who was trained, on what, the knowledge test result and the sign-off. A candidate who completes the training and knowledge test is issued a certificate carrying a QR code. Scanning it, or looking the reference up directly, opens a live record showing who was trained, on what, and when: the same record a licensing officer, trading standards or your own management can check without asking you to find a filing cabinet.
No. Challenge 25 is industry best practice and the accepted standard, not a statutory duty. Staff are told it is venue policy and that departing from it is a disciplinary matter, not that it is the law.
No. Only a genuine regulated licensing qualification from an accredited awarding body satisfies section 19 of the Licensing Act 2003. PHW's DPS support pack is operational material for a DPS who already holds that personal licence, not a substitute for it.
Evidence: a written policy, dated training records, staff sign-off on what they were taught, a completed refusals register, and periodic management review. An opinion that staff know the rules is not a defence; the paperwork is.
No. These packs are scoped to underage sales prevention, drugs awareness and DPS support. General workplace health and safety compliance packs are a separate PHW product line.
Against the pack's own knowledge test, marked from a separate answer key, with the result and sign-off recorded and issued as a QR-verifiable certificate.
Prices and buying for the underage sales and drugs awareness packs are in the PHW shop. The DPS support pack is quoted for your venue.