Compliance in retail and hospitality is never tested more than in the run-up to Christmas. Increased footfall, stretched rotas, new starters, faster service, and constant decision-making all create the conditions where standards can slip — even in well-run businesses.
But our latest audit results show something encouraging: across key risk areas, compliance is improving year on year and, in many cases, it holds up through the toughest quarter of the calendar.
At Serve Legal, we work with operators across the UK to test, measure and improve compliance in areas that directly affect customer welfare, business risk and frontline staff confidence. In this update we’re shining a spotlight on four of our audit programmes: AWP machine and alcohol age verification compliance, allergen compliance and revenue protection.
Across all four audit types, we are thrilled to share that 2025 year-to-date pass rates have been higher than 2024.
The most notable uplift is in revenue protection, which has improved by nearly 11% year on year.
We also see improvement in AWP compliance year on year, with a 5% increase in compliance rates from 42% to 47%. While that progress is welcome, AWP remains the most challenging area overall. There is still significant work to be done across the sector to ensure underage customers are not able to engage with these machines.
Meanwhile, alcohol compliance remains consistently strong and stable, and allergen compliance continues to perform well, with evidence of further strengthening as we move into the peak season.
We understand the concern and it’s a fair one.
Peak trading is exactly when policies meet reality. It’s also when teams are under the most strain, and that can show up in audit outcomes, especially where processes rely on consistent routines being followed under pressure.
Our Q4 2025 results show a nuanced picture:
So, while the seasonal “squeeze” hasn’t disappeared entirely, Q4 performance in 2025 is materially stronger than previous years overall, and in some areas it actually improves during peak trading.
It’s encouraging to see the extra focus many of our clients have placed on auditing, staff training and regional reporting paying off during the most challenging period of the year for retail and hospitality.
As much as everyone loves to pass a Serve Legal audit, the purpose of compliance auditing isn’t perfection for its own sake.
Done properly, audits help operators:
In other words: compliance measurement isn’t about catching people out. It’s about building consistency and resilience.
One clear theme we see is that operators who invest in the lead-up to the festive season tend to protect results during peak trading.
Refresher training, clearer escalation routes, stronger shift briefings, better onboarding for seasonal staff, and more consistent checks all add up and our Q4 data suggests many businesses made those changes this autumn.
The outcome isn’t just improved performance on paper. It’s improved customer protection, stronger staff confidence, and reduced risk when pressure is highest.
Serve Legal supports retail and hospitality operators to test, measure and improve compliance across high-risk areas with practical insight you can act on, not just a score at the end of a report.
We help clients to spot where compliance is slipping and why, identify “weak links” before they become incidents, target training and budget more effectively, evidence due diligence and customer welfare in a way that stands up to scrutiny and measure whether interventions are actually working over time.
If you’d like to understand how your compliance is performing on the ground, get in touch with the Serve Legal team to request a free snapshot audit for any site in the UK or Ireland.