Alcohol deliveries without age verification are currently not illegal, but should be, a public health organisation says. Photo:
Alcohol sales laws need an overhaul, researchers say, after finding 73 percent of door-to-door booze deliveries happen with zero identification checks and almost half the alcohol is left unattended at the door.
In some cases the contactless deliveries were made within half an hour.
The study, carried out by Alcohol Healthwatch, included 46 online alcohol orders made during two months in 2023, by a reasearcher under 25 year old.
Alcohol Healthwatch health promotion advisor Sarah Sneyd, the lead author of the study, told Checkpoint that new shopping patterns mean alcohol laws have fallen behind, and desperately need an overhaul.
"There are a few problems here I think ...first and foremost the ease and accessibility for children and young people to get their hands on alcohol."
The alcohol purchaser used by the study looked much younger than 25 years old, and for most deliveries she was not asked for identification at the door, Sneyd said.
But not checking a person's age before supplying the alcohol by delivery is not illegal, Sneyd said:
"It's actually legal. And I think that's what's ... surprising as a community, we expect that if you were to go into a bricks and mortar liquor shop, there's someone there who's trained, and they're trained to recognise to ask children for ID, to recognise intoxicated people.
"In the online delivery space there's no laws at all around having to check ID when it arrives at your door, it's really like the Wild West, and very few people are doing [checks]."
Alcohol Healthwatch have called for new laws that would ban leaving an alcohol sale delivery unattended, would require ID is checked, and would mean a slow down of the deliveries so that alcohol cannot be delivered within 24 hours of the time the order was placed.
All of the companies ordered from in the study had a policy that said any person who received the goods must have ID when it was delivered, however almost 90 percent of them were not ensuring that was happening on every delivery, Sneyd said.
"Only two companies actually checked ID for every single delivery. And a few notable [companies] that really surprised us didn't check ID at all.
"A lot of the supermarkets" were among those who did not do check ID on delivery, she said.
"Countdown didn't check ID for any one of the deliveries that we placed.
"So despite what they're saying on their online policies, something's getting lost in translation to the on-the-ground processes and what's actually going on."
When placing an alcohol order online, two boxes must be ticked to indicate the shopper is old enough to buy alcohol, but there was no online verification process.
Sneyd said there were some laws surrounding alcohol sales that do currently apply to delivery people: "They can be prosecuted, if they hand over that alcohol to a minor or to someone who's intoxicated.
"The trouble with that, is if you're leaving it unattended at the door, well you're not technically doing either of those two things. You could leave it and anyone could grab it."
The average delivery time for the alcohol to be delivered in the study was 30 minutes, with one arriving after only 17 minutes, and the rapid delivery times were a concern, Sneyd said.
"We know from research that the easier it is to access alcohol, the more you drink and the faster you drink it, and we know that it extends binge drinking sessions long after they would have wound up naturally otherwise.
"What we know from research is that high risk drinkers are almost three times more likely to be utilising these same-day services."
Low-risk drinkers generally do not need the alcohol straight away, she said.
There were a range of social harms that could result if people were binge drinking in their homes, Sneyd said, including family harm and strain on emergency department staff.
Alcohol Healthwatch had discussed the findings with police, Sneyd said, and also hope to talk about it with government ministers about it.
They wanted to see legislation in line with other OECD countries, including ID checks and not leaving alcohol on the doorstep.
There should also be protections, Sneyd said, so delivery drivers are not financially penalised if they fail to complete orders because they cannot check ID or will not leave alcohol unattended.
