COMMENTARY ON SECTIONS PART 7: Offences. Section 149 – Purchase of alcohol by or on behalf of children
236.Subsection (1) makes it an offence for a child to buy or attempt to buy alcohol whether or not on licensed premises, or, if he is a member of a club, for him to have alcohol supplied to him by the club (in circumstances where he actively caused the supply) or attempt to do so. The offence will not be committed if the child was asked by a police constable or trading standards officer, acting in the course of their duty, to buy or attempt to buy alcohol in order to conduct test purchasing operations to establish whether licensees and staff working in licensed premises are complying with the prohibition on underage sales.
237.Subsection (3) makes it an offence for a person to act as an agent for a child in purchasing or attempting to purchase alcohol, for example, if a child gives money to an adult to buy alcohol in an off-licence for consumption by the child. The offence also applies where a member of a club has alcohol supplied to a child or attempts to do so. Subsection (4) makes it a further offence for a person to buy or attempt to buy alcohol for consumption by a child on licensed premises, for example, where a father buys a drink for his son in a pub. The offence also applies where a member of a club has alcohol supplied to a child (in circumstances where he actively caused the supply) or attempts to do so. Subsection (5) provides that this offence will not be committed if a person aged 18 or over buys beer, wine or cider for a person aged 16 or 17 to consume with a table meal on relevant premises (see the definitions in section 159), in circumstances where the 16 or 17 year old is accompanied by an adult. This provision thus re-enacts the existing exemption in section 169D of the Licensing Act 1964.