Time to ACT!: Get on site

The new premises licences are the focus of the second part of Time to ACT!, The Publican's initiative with the British Beer & Pub Association and...

The new premises licences are the focus of the second part of Time to ACT!, The Publican's initiative with the British Beer & Pub Association and the BII, aimed at guiding pubs through transition to the new licensing regime.

Following on from last week's licensing feature, in part two we are focusing on the premises licence, what you need to do and how you can protect your business. The new Act abolishes current liquor licences, public entertainment licences, special hours certificates, supper hours certificates, children's certificates and a great number of other outdated pieces of legislation. It also provides the opportunity for licensees to decide what is most appropriate for their business.

An application for a premises licence can be made by any individual or organisation running a business that involves "licensable activities" - the sale and supply of alcohol, provision of entertainment and late night refreshment. During the transition period you must apply to convert your current justices and local authority licences to the new premises licence. These applications will be either for simple conversion, or conversion and variation at the same time. You must apply to convert to a new premises licence by August 6, 2005.

What do I need to do to apply for a premises licence?

You need to get hold of the application form from your local authority or from the Department for Culture, Media & Sport website at: http://www.culture.gov.uk/alcohol_and_entertainment/LicensingAct2003App.htm

The first part of the form allows you to convert your current justices licence to the new premises licence, along with your current terms of trading, with one or two exceptions.

The other part of the form deals with variations which allows you to apply for longer hours, entertainments and to remove any unnecessary existing conditions that may have been attached to your justices licence or your public entertainment licence.

You can ask for a variation of your licence at the same time as you apply to convert your old licence. With this arrangement the conversion and variation are done together.

How do I apply to retain my licence - and for my "grandfather rights"?

Pages one to seven of the application form deal with conversion. You need to submit the following with the form:

A copy of your existing licence and any extra permissions (e.g. public entertainment licence, children's certificates, supper hours and special hours certificates)
A plan of your premises (scale must be 1:100 unless you have received permission from the licensing authority to submit plans in other scales, e.g. those already submitted for a justices licence)
The appropriate fee (determined by the rateable value of your premises)
The name of the designated premises supervisor (DPS) -
(this will normally be the current licensee) who will hold overall responsibility for the sale of alcohol on the premises. Only one person should be named and they must hold a personal licence
A signed consent form from the DPS.

Copies of the form must also be submitted to the "responsible authorities" a list of which should be available from your local council's licensing policy. These are:

Police
Fire authority
Trading standards
Child protection body
Environmental health
Planning authority
Health & Safety Enforcement Agency.

REMEMBER that as a current licensee you are entitled to retain your current licensing hours which are:

Normal permitted hours (including drinking-up time)
Any extended hours by way of special hours certificates or supper hours certificates (any conditions attached to these will also need to be listed in the conversion form)
Any extended hours granted by a public entertainment licence (your PEL will also allow you to retain permissions for music and/or dancing - again any conditions will need to be listed)
New Year's Eve hours (11am New Year's Eve through to 11pm New Year's Day).

NB: You cannot assume that these hours will be transferred automatically to your new licence. You must detail them in the conversion form. If you want to change any aspects of your operation, you will need to apply for a variation.

Where do I list the existing conditions on my current licence?

These must be listed in the third section of the form under one of the four licensing objectives, or in the section marked "general" if a condition covers all the licensing objectives, or does not fall easily into any of the four categories. For example:

Prevention of crime and disorder: requirement to have CCTV
Protection of public safety: capacity limit
Prevention of public nuisance: live music to cease at 11.30pm
Protection of children from harm: no admittance to under-18s
General: the need to provide food and entertainment alongside a special hours certificate.

NB: You only need to provide such information if there are requirements on your current licence(s).

Applying for a variation

Variations will be required if:

You want to continue to make use of the two-in-the-bar rule for entertainment
You would like longer permitted hours for licensable activities/drinking-up time
You want to remove unnecessary conditions, for example:
- The need to serve food after 11pm in relation to a special hours certificate. If you do not apply to vary this you will have to continue to serve food
- Any conditions on a public entertainment licence which are either unnecessary or covered by other legislation eg. a condition not to serve alcohol to under-18s.

REMEMBER you only need to fill in those parts of the operating schedule that relate to the variation or variations for which you are applying.

How do I apply for additional hours and other variations?

You need to complete the second part of the form which is in three main parts as follows:

The first part asks for a general description of the variation to be applied for, eg. longer hours over the weekend
The second part asks for much more detailed information on such matters as the type of entertainment, opening hours etc.
The third part mirrors the conversion part of the form and lists the four licensing objectives. The key difference here is that you are asked to consider the licensing objectives and list any measures you propose to promote those objectives into the relevant sections. There is also a general section as before.

When applying for variations keep it simple but at the same time be careful not to invite any objections that might lead to unwanted restrictions.

Application for variations must show that the operation promotes the licensing objectives in relation to the specific variation(s) requested.

You may need to consider additional conditions which will be necessary in some circumstances, for example:

The prevention of crime and disorder
- CCTV
- Door supervisors
- Toughened glasses.

Protection of public safety
Compliance with health & safety and fire legislation should be sufficient to meet the public safety objective in most cases. But where certain activities take place, for example dancing, you may need to consider: