What age can you drink?

[RyanBoyd97]

When are you allowed to drink in the UK with friends?

[erin-x]

Legally, 18.

[hc4361]

You mean at home? No age limit.

[micmak]

I think in a restaurant if you are eating you can drink at 14. That was the case a few years ago.

[hc4361]

Before the age of 18, you are not allowed to buy alcohol in pubs or shops, drink alcohol in pubs or outside in public places. It is also unlawful for anyone else to buy alcohol for you if you are under 18 and the drink will be consumed in a pub or public place.

However, if you're aged 16 or 17, you are allowed to drink wine, beer, or cider (but not other alcohol) with a meal in a restaurant, hotel or part of a pub set apart for eating meals. You can only do this if someone aged 18 or over is with you at the meal and buys the alcohol.

Any child aged five or over can drink alcohol at home or on other private premises but children under the age of five can only drink alcohol on a doctor's advice for health reasons.


http://www.adviceguid...nking_and_smoking.htm

[Buenchico]

As Hc4361 has indicated, the law (as applied to a young person) only relates to the purchase or possession of alcohol, not to actually drinking it. A person under 18 commits an offence if they try to buy alcohol, and police are empowered to seize alcohol from minors in a public place, but it's not an offence for a young person to consume alcohol.

As far as the young person (and the law) is concerned, they're free to drink alcohol from the age where they can hold the glass or bottle (which might be around 1 year old!). However others can commit an offence by supplying the alcohol (or by permitting them to consume it on licensed premises).

Your username, RyanBoyd97, suggests that you're probably 14 or 15 years old. If you can get hold of alcohol it's perfectly legal for you to consume it (but if you do so in a public place you risk having it seized by the police).

However it would be irresponsible of me not to point out that many young people exceed the accepted safe limits for consuming alcohol:
http://www.patient.co...Limits-of-Alcohol.htm
(Even going marginally over those limits can considerably increase certain health risks).

Equally, I'd be hypocritical if I failed to mention that my first serious drinking session with my pals was on my 14th birthday (at home, with the full consent of my parents) and that I'm currently somewhat further down a bottle of red wine wine than the recommended guidelines allow!

Chris

[bobthefisherman]

As a member of the British Institute Of Innkeeping, I fully agree with hc and Chris.....
The Children Act 1979, and the Licensing Act 1984 both support this....

And, Chris, I had my first hangover at fourteen after attending a party with my parents.... (white lightning cider was fashionable then)... :-)
bob.

[ummmm]

I thought it was 5.

[Twenty20]

Who mentioned alcohol?

What age can you drink? From birth.

[MartinBev58]

I was out with my mother when I was about 12 and we purchased a few items including a bottle of sherry.
I carried 2 bags and my mother carried 2 or 3 bags.
We never gave it any thought but I was carrying the bag with the sherry in.
A police officer who we knew spotted it and said it was probably best if I do not carry the alcohol in future but took no action as it was obvious I was not about to drink it.
He knew my mothers car was only about 50 yards away and told us not to put the bags down on a wet pavement to change them.

Martin

[LochNessMonster]

18

[ojread2]

show me a 5 year old with drinking buddies