I believe that, from the age of 14, alcohol is permitted if it's with a meal in a restaurant.

Regarding the shandy - my husband had an argument with a landlord in a pub in Monmouth 10 years ago, when he ordered a shandy for my 14 year old son. (Not with a meal, I might add).The beer to be used was 3.8%. It was being diluted by half (=1.9%), and the licencing laws (at that time anyway) classed anything under 2% as non-alcoholic (such as cans of Shandy Bass, which were about 2%). The landlord wouldn't give an inch. Nice try, anyway.

Andrea