ID, Age and Capacity Checks
We supply medicines only when it is safe and appropriate to do so. To protect patients and prevent misuse, we verify identity, confirm age, and make a proportionate assessment of capacity and consent.
These checks are part of our clinical governance process and align with General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and Care Quality Commission (CQC) standards for online and distance-selling pharmacies.
Age policy
- Online supply is for adults aged 18+, unless a medicine or service has different legal rules.
- Date of birth is captured and checked automatically; orders indicating under-18 are blocked.
- Where risk is higher, we request documentary proof of age before supply.
- Pharmacists may contact the patient to confirm age if any uncertainty remains.
Identity checks
We use proportionate checks depending on medicine risk. These may include address validation, credit-reference style lookups (non-credit searches), and manual review of documents where needed.
Acceptable ID (one of):
- UK passport or EU/EEA passport
- UK photocard driving licence
- UK biometric residence permit
Proof of address (one of):
- Bank or building society statement (dated < 3 months)
- Utility bill (dated < 3 months, not mobile)
- Council tax bill (current year)
In cases where documentary ID is requested, images are reviewed securely and deleted once verification is complete.
Capacity & consent
- Our clinical questionnaires confirm understanding of the medicine, its instructions, and key warnings.
- Patients must confirm the order is for themselves (or lawful authority to act on behalf of another adult).
- Indicators of impaired capacity (e.g. contradictory answers, coercion, or inability to consent) trigger pharmacist review. We may refuse supply and signpost to appropriate healthcare if necessary.
- All decisions are recorded in the patient’s record as part of our clinical governance process.
Fraud & duplicate-order controls
- Duplicate detection using name, date of birth, address, device and payment information.
- Cooling-off periods for higher-risk medicines; suspicious or repeat orders are manually reviewed, cancelled or refunded.
- Orders with mismatched identity details are escalated to a pharmacist for verification.
- Known misuse patterns are blacklisted to prevent further orders.
Privacy
We collect only the information necessary to confirm eligibility and identity and keep it secure. Where we request document images, these are reviewed, recorded as verified, and deleted once checks are complete unless the law requires longer retention. See our Privacy Notice for full details.