What Are The Requirements For Events Including Alcohol?

When hosting events including alcohol, the first thing you need to ensure is you have the right venue and expertise; You should hold your event in a licensed premises as this then ensures that trained staff are serving drinks and making decisions on whether to continue service.

All events must be inclusive and prevent members from feeling pressurised to drink alcohol. With this in mind, there must always be a non-alcoholic alternative when alcohol is provided as part of a ticket e.g. an alcohol ticket and a no-alcohol ticket. This enables those who do not wish to drink alcohol an alternative, and reduces the risk of ‘spare’ alcoholic drinks being consumed irresponsibly. Student group execs also have a duty to promote responsible drinking; water should always be available and serving food is strongly encouraged. 

Another point to note is that alcohol cannot be sold by Student Groups at events: nobody can sell alcohol without a Personal Licence qualification, and additionally they need to be authorised by the licensed premises that the event is being held at. 

Implications Of Your Group Name

If you use University name as part of your group name (i.e. Durham University xxx Society, NOT Durham xxx Society), then you cannot provide over 3 units of alcohol as part of the ticket price as per the University’s alcohol policies. Groups can provide more than 3 units, however; but this must be done as a separate transaction to the ticket (e.g. students can buy drinks vouchers in line with suggested acceptable limits). 

Acceptable Limits

The below table is a guide on what are acceptable amounts. This is a guide only and presumes that there is an acceptable monitoring process in place. Any event without an acceptable process would not be approved. No event should provide over 12 units. This doesn’t mean that students can’t drink more than that; They are still entitled to go to a bar and buy a drink if they are deemed not too drunk by bar staff.

To monitor the above, we would suggest a token system or stamp card and the method for monitoring acceptable limits must be detailed in your Risk Assessment. We'd also expect to see measures on how the alcohol will be distributed. Having a ‘help yourself system’ is not acceptable as you need to ask yourself how you can avoid person A drinking 3 units and person B drinking 21.

Corkage

Think of corkage as a sort of "BYOB" (Bring Your Own Bottle) fee that restaurants charge when you bring in your own alcohol to enjoy with your meal. It's like a service charge for the venue to handle and serve the wine you brought; They'll usually provide the glasses, open the bottle, and serve it for you. The cost of corkage can vary from place to place, but it's generally there to cover the staff's efforts in serving your drink.

ON CAMPUS

Under no circumstances should alcohol be consumed in university rooms. If evidence of such is discovered, your group will be banned from using university spaces. 

The SU allows alcohol to be drank in some of its spaces, however, this should be bought from the Riverside Cafe Bar where possible. Where groups are found to be bringing in their own alcohol, they will be charged corkage regardless of whether the cafe bar is aiding to serve the alcohol or not. 

For any issues relating to accessing the links above, please get in touch here.