Rule on outside areas

QCan you explain the first guidance note on the application form to convert a justices' licence into a premises licence? I have always understood that if you hold an off-licence you cannot allow people to consume their drinks either on the premises or close by. This note seems to suggest that you can provide a place for them to drink. What does it mean, and does it apply to me?

AI notice you write from a pub, not an off-licence. The fact that this strange guidance note, which sets the tone for the whole application, is at first sight inexplicable, is just one of the reasons why there is so much anger at what the Department for Culture Media & Sport has produced.

It is true that the holder of an off-licence cannot do what the note suggests. Under the provision of the Licensing Act 1964, it is an offence for an off-licence holder to allow drinking of purchases on the premises, or for a nearby place to be used for such consumption with his "privity or consent".

But this note is not intended to apply to such holders. It is aimed at the holders of on-licences like you. What it means is that if you make sales for people to take into the garden, and that garden does not technically form part of the licensed premises, you must nevertheless describe it in the box as part of the premises.

This stems from the old practice of only licensing the buildings for consumption, so that the beer garden or patio was technically "off the premises", even though regularly used by customers. Clearly, if you describe the premises without these areas mentioned, the licensing authority will not have a clear picture of how your premises are conducted. So the guidance note asks for you to include them, but it contrives to do this in the most puzzling way.

Note that this information is compulsory, so that all such areas must be mentioned in this box in Part A3.

Personal licence and BII

QMy wife and I have worked in the licensed trade as both managers and tenants and passed our BII qualifying exam in 1989. We have never applied for associate membership as I was a licensee in my own right (and still am) and she ably assisted me.

With the new licensing regime, will her BII qualification be sufficient for her to apply for a personal licence in her own right, or will she need to attend another National Certificate for Licensees course in order to do so?

AI am afraid that if she is not currently a licensee, her existing BII qualification will not be sufficient for her to apply directly for the new personal licence.

As I commented recently on this page, it is only those people who currently hold justices' licences who can apply for "grandfather rights" during the transition period. You have to demonstrate to the relevant licensing authority that you are named on a licence on the date of application (and not that you have held a licence in the past, or even on the first appointed day).

So even if she has been named on a licence during the course of her career, that alone will not qualify her. Unless she is joined on a licence in the next three months, she will have to start from scratch and obtain one of the new personal licence qualifications, and a basic criminal record form, in order to gain a personal licence.

Limits on AWP stakes

QCan you explain how stakes can be as high as £5 in one of these new machines that are being installed in pubs on a trial basis? I thought we had limits set on AWP [amusements with prizes] machines.

AYou are quite right in thinking that there are limits on AWP machines. Currently the maximum stake is 30p and the maximum prize is £25. However, although I do not know the exact details of the trial machines, it appears that they are using aspects of the lottery law, rather than the rules governing pub machines, to provide prize opportunities. I will describe the system in more detail on this page as soon as I possibly can.