Legal advice: Licensing fees

Licensing minister Richard Caborn finally unveiled the long-awaited fees at The Publican Conference.

By David Clifton of thePublican.com's team of legal experts from London solicitors Joelson Wilson.​

On November 4, the government published for consultation the long awaited draft regulations setting out the proposed fees for licences, certificates and notices under the new Licensing Act. The Act gives the Secretary of State power to make regulations prescribing the amount of the fees payable to a licensing authority by a person making an application or giving a notice under the Act.

The consultation document states that for the first time fees will be set centrally. It claims that this will remove the inconsistencies that currently exist. However, those inconsistencies exist only in relation to public entertainment licensing, not liquor licensing.

The government reiterates that it expects to set fees at a level that will achieve full recovery of the administration, inspection and enforcement costs that will fall on any licensing authority. The proposed fees include:

• £37 for a personal licence (excluding the cost of qualifications and CRB checks)
• Premises licences will be banded according to non-domestic rateable value of the premises so that there will be:

• a £80 to £500 one-off payment for a licence under the new system
• a £40 to £225 annual fee for inspection and enforcement

It is suggested that the following administrative fees will also be payable:

• An application for a copy of the licence/certificate/temporary event notice/personal licence, or licence summary on theft, loss etc: £10.50
• Notification of change of name, address or club rules: £10.50
• Application to vary the designated premises supervisor: £23
• Application to transfer premises licence: £23
• Interim authority notice: £23
• Application for making a provisional statement: £195
• Temporary events notices: £21
• Notice of any interest in any premises: £21

The government expects that over a period of 10 years the new licensing regime will produce savings to the industry of about £2bn and administrative savings of almost £150m to the police through "the reduction in red tape".

However, it stresses that these savings will not necessarily be produced through the introduction of lower fees compared to the fees under existing licensing regimes.

It suggests that the main savings will arise through the reduction in licensing processes in the mid-to-long-term and therefore reductions in management, legal and administrative costs to the industry and the police. Time will tell.

What I suspect many will think is that the proposed fee levels will add considerably to the cost of running a typical traditional pub, which currently has no public entertainment licence. It should also be remembered that some of these costs will be recurring throughout the year, for example when temporary events notices are given (only available for premises with capacities of 499 or less - including staff and any performers).

It is only premises currently operating with public entertainment licences that are likely to see any real saving in cost from the fee levels proposed. The proposals are subject to a seven-week consultation period (ending on December 23) after which the government will consider the responses and make any necessary amendments to the draft regulations and order. The Local Government Association (LGA) has already stated that it does not believe that the proposed fees are sufficient to cover costs and that council taxes may have to be increased. The LGA is also concerned that inadequate fee income could slow down application processing and make enforcement difficult.

This level of anxiety by local authorities has been recognised and the Secretary of State has agreed with the LGA that after the regime has become fully operational there will be an independent review of the costs of the regime and the fee levels by the Audit Commission. I suspect that there is little chance that the commission will decide to reduce the fees.

The minister's speech​

There was some good news in the minister's speech at The Publican Conference - the government has finally woken up to the fact that it is going to need to change the law to ensure that AWP machines in pubs can still be made available once the 2003 Act comes into full force on "the second appointed day".

The bad news: the minister had to consult his DCMS officials to establish that he has still not announced when the second appointed day will be and gave us no clue when it will actually be. I bet it's not going to be November 7 2005.