News: Scottish Licensing
- Date: 08/01/2009
- Author/Solicitor: Jeremy Allen
There was a story which appeared in various trade papers at the beginning of December regarding problems relating to the processing of application for personal licences in Scotland. Typical of many, was a headline that read "thousands of pubs across Scotland could lose their licences due to a backlog in processing applications under the new Licensing Act". The story arose as many local Licensing Boards were, and still are advising publicans not to apply for their personal licence holder certificate until later this year. If there are 60,000 applications to process before the 1st September, there is a very real risk the premises may not be able to open, simply because they haven't got a personal licence holder in place. It gets slightly worse as, if the nomination hasn't been made for a premises manager by the 1st December 2009, the licence is going to be immediately revoked. Here at Poppleston Allen we carried out a telephone survey, and many Licensing Boards said that they were starting to process applications in late January or February. A number said they were waiting until closer to the start of the new Act, which could be August or later. This is clearly something that needs to be carefully watched by operators, as the risk of not having a personal licence holder in place is, to say the least, considerable.
One matter that doesn't appear to have been considered in any detail surrounds the training of staff involved in the sale of alcohol. Every single member of staff, part time or full time, must receive formal licensing training which must last for at least two hours and cover 16 subjects. Whilst there will be training packages available, the training must be carried out by a personal licence holder and there just aren't many of those around, particularly at present. We will continue to watch the position in Scotland and update this eNews in the spring.
For more information please contact Jeremy Allen at Poppleston Allen.
