No id aged 48, no entry.

[Idontlookyoung]

Decided to carry the night on last night after a friend's party ended.

My 48 year old partner and I were turned away from 2 bars as he didn't have any physical id. My driving license and a scanned copy of his passport wasn't good enough. He hasn't carried his driving license for years since he put his cards on his phone. It was rare that I had my purse on me.

We laughed hard at the ridiculousness of it all as he definitely looks over 40. But seriously? Why scan my driving licence to let me into a bar? They don't need my personal details.

It wasn't even London, it was Reading. Not exactly a cultural hotspot!

Reading has some of the strictest licensing laws in the UK which are imposed by Reading Council working with Thames Valley Police. All nightclub venues that I know of there use ID scanners which log who is in the building for police and security tracing as part of their licensing rules. My son has been bar crew in a couple of big venues and he told me they were very strict.

I don't know how anyone can have fun in a place that is primed for a police report at all times (obviously I do understand why they need to be I just don't fancy being in that sort of environment)

I take it they are setup to comply with GDPR.

Was it the Purple Turtle?

It’s completely normal and nothing to do with his age. It’s just routine to request ID at clubs and late night bars nowadays.

No one will accept a scan of ID, too easy to falsify it, so I’m not surprised they wouldn’t accept it. Clearly it’s not because they thought he was under age, they probably just have a blanket rule to ID everyone, they’re hardly likely to get into the specifics of it with (quite likely to be) drunk people on a Saturday night, even if they did tell you the real reason what are you going to do, try and persuade them otherwise? More hassle than it’s worth.

I 💗Reading

Yeah, I assume so, I’ve never asked but I’ve had my passport scanned in 90% of London hotels and I go once a month, sometimes to the same one so if it was saved they wouldn’t need to scan it again.

Very common round here and often a condition of the licence is to id every person entering the premises

Was it the Purple Turtle?

Presuming you are addressing the OP (as you haven't tagged anyone else).

She says where it is in her post - if you were that curious you would have read all of the words.

Someone pushing 50 won’t be asked
for ID due to age. More likely safety/security.

I’ve been to clubs in London that require ID from everyone, though I’ve definitely seen that information in advance from some of them. I carry a provisional driving licence even though I don’t drive as it’s occasionally necessary to have ID and there’s no way I’m carrying a passport around.

So do they scan it on the way out in order to delete the data?

I understand a hotel wanting your id - you don't usually pay until you leave and they do need to verify that you are the person who booked, but a bar?

Showing id to verify that you're over age is one thing. Keeping a copy of your driving licence or passport for some unspecified reason not so much.

If it's to do with limiting the number of people in/out then they could achieve that by counting people entering and leaving.

Nah, a few years back friends and I, all in our 40s, were turned away from a bar because we didn’t have ID. Doorman said he could quite clearly see we were of age but couldn’t go against company policy. We had the last laugh because the bar was empty and we spent our money elsewhere.

I think this is just because legally they can’t leave your shopping with a minor so an adult needs to be home when it’s delivered. They won’t ask for ID unless you look particularly young, my kids have been asked occasionally when they take the shopping in as I’m not home.

Nope.

McCafferty's-which made my partner sad as he loves Irish music.

Then turned away from Popworld.

We ended up in the Pentahotel, who were having a samba night. Danced the night away 💕

Why did you have his scanned passport - why didn't he show it to them himself?

Turned away from Popworld? He must have been bad ! Think you had a lucky escape lol

We love a bit of Popworld! It would have been our third one, but clearly not to be.

No, they just delete when everyone has left the club (without something happening) or after your room is vacated and checked. I always pay for my hotel before I arrive and often have to have my passport scanned each time I return. I think they work on the same premise - you could use someone else’s card to book the hotel but they’d need to know who was actually in the room should something illegal occur, same as if there was an assault or drug use at the club - they could report it to the police with your details.

I thought everyone knew this 🤷🏻‍♀️

Popworld have got back to me:

"we are required to ask everyone who enters our premises for ID and scan the physical id's which creates a record of everyone who has entered our venue for the police to view if required"

The message concluded by saying we should have asked for a manager.

We didn't care enough to ask for a manager. We were laughing too much at being ID'd.

The message didn't say how long they keep the id for either.

I'm very unlikely to be out for a last minute Reading Saturday night again. But I'll make sure partner has physical id if it's likely we'll be out out unexpectedly again.

These guys?

https://www.popworldparty.co.uk/reading/privacy-policy

I've just had a read of that and it's... interesting to say the least.

Anything can happen in pubs/clubs. Think the worst! Therefore, they need to identify victims and any perpetrators.