Free tap water – obligations for pubs and restaurants

A Bristol bar owner recently complained that customers who asked for free tap water with their meals, rather than alcohol or soft drinks, were ruining her business. She said that she was struggling to turn a profit on tables where this happened.

It makes good sense for the environment to provide customers with a glass of tap water in order to reduce single use plastics but there is no doubt that this can have an impact on profits for an operator who relies on selling lots of bottles of water and other soft drinks.  We look at whether you are obliged to give customers free water if they ask and the consequences of not doing so?

What does the law say?

The Licensing Act 2003 which applies to England and Wales sets out a number of mandatory licence conditions.  One such condition states:

“The responsible person shall ensure that free tap water is provided on request to customers where it is reasonably available.”

There are various points to note here:

This obligation only applies to a premises which is licensed to sell alcohol. For example, a cafe that does not have a licence is not be obliged to give customers free tap water.

• It is open to a licensed premises to make a charge for the glass that the water comes in, to charge if it is filtered water or to charge for their service.
• The Consumer Council for Water actively advocates against this and recommends customers should not be charged. There have been instances of charged customers complaining about restaurants in online tap water rights threads.
• The obligation is only to provide customers with free water. A customer is not defined in the legislation.  Arguably a customer is someone who “buys your goods or services”.  It would follow therefore that you could lawfully refuse to serve free tap water to a group who arrive and sit in your bar watching your TV and using your facilities but not buying and drink or food. However, again, this is likely to lead to customer complaints.

The rules in Scotland are broadly the same, under a different act. In Northern Ireland, however, restaurant owners are not obligated to provide anything for free as there is no equivalent provision.

Refill is helping people live with less plastic. By using their App, people can find the nearest place to refill their water bottle.  Businesses are strongly encouraged to provide free drinking water to customers and non-customers even if they don’t have an alcohol licence.  You can sign up to the App and display a sticker in your window. The campaign estimates to have saved 100,000,000 bottles from entering the waste stream.

Penalty for failing to serve tap water

There is also a penalty for failing to serve tap water to a customer.  As this is a breach of a licence condition, it can be punishable with up to 6 months in prison, an unlimited fine and the probability of a licence review application and adverse publicity.

For more information, contact Lisa Gilligan.