Hosts given notice to make the TENs count

In the second of four articles prior to licensing D-Day, Peter Coulson explains how temporary event notices work

Next week you will have the first opportunity to hand over one of the new-style temporary event notices (TENs). These will replace both occasional licences and occasional permissions on the second appointed day, when the Licensing Act 1964 is repealed.

If you have been granted block holiday extensions earlier in the year by magistrates, these will have no effect after 24 November.

If your new premises licence does not give you extended hours on all the occasions you require over Christmas, for example, you can use one or more TENs. This applies not just to extra time for sale of alcohol, but also to one-off entertainments which may not be covered by the premises licence. Any 'licenseable activity' can be covered by a TEN.

Although the relevant regulations have only recently been laid down, there is a need to bring the system in before the second appointed day, because of the minimum period of notice required, which is 10 working days before the event.

So, for example, if you wanted a special extension of hours on 24 November, you would have to lodge the notice with the licensing authority next Thursday, 10 November.

'Working days' excludes Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays, so you will have to count carefully in future.

Some licensing authorities are setting a minimum period of notice in their policies which is longer than the 10-day minimum set in the Act. This is a request, rather than a requirement - they cannot refuse to accept a notice given to them in accordance with the law.

Remember you are not making an application to the licensing authority which it can accept or reject. You are giving notice that you intend to run a special event. The only reason the authority can raise for rejecting it is if you have given too many notices, or they are too close together, or too many people are attending. Only the police can object to a TEN, and then only on crime and disorder grounds, not on the hours requested or whether the event is 'special' or not.

Nor can the environmental health department object on noise grounds. If the event creates a problem, it has the normal recourse to pollution control remedies.

The police can, of course, close a temporary event, but only if there is a clear indication of disorder or noise nuisance. In those circumstances they can issue a written closure order which is given to the premises user at the time. It is an offence not to comply with such an order.

What you need to do

Typically for this Act, the form of notice is long and asks many questions. In effect, you are being asked to supply the licensing authority with everything it needs to know in order to work out whether you are qualified to hold the event. If you lie on the form, you can be prosecuted. In practice, it is likely that some local authorities will also run their own check on the accuracy of the information, which effectively doubles the time taken to process it.

However, if you are running events in different licensing areas, there is currently no mechanism for doing a national check on whether you have exceeded your maximum annual allocation which, if you hold a personal licence, is 50 events.

Temporary event notice forms may be available on request from your local licensing authority, or alternatively you can download them from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport website at www.culture.gov.uk under alcohol and entertainment.

They are five pages long and come with five pages of explanatory notes. They could have been shorter, but that is not the DCMS way. You will also need three copies of the notice (without the notes, if you like - keep hold of them for reference). Two are delivered to the licensing authority, together with the required fee, and one to police.

The licensing authority must return one of their copies to you before the end of the first working day following the day of receipt (ie, promptly). If they receive it at a weekend, they have an extra day. Of course, if the application is defective in some way, because you have not fully completed it or have entered wrong information, then they could reject it. But they could also just let you know what the mistake was, so you can correct it. I am sure some will, but I am equally certain some won't!

Making use of a TEN

The immediate return of a copy of the TEN with a signed acknowledgement by an officer should be the end of the matter. If the police have no crime and disorder issues, the event may go ahead as planned. If they do, you may need to appear before the licensing committee, unless you previously agree some form of compromise.

You do not need to advertise the event (unless you want to attract customers) or give advance notice to anyone else.

What you are required to do is have the signed copy of the notice available at the premises where the event is taking place, and either show the notice or, more sensibly, a simple A4 sheet saying the notice is held by you as the premises user, or by someone you've delegated.

There are currently no official forms for this, so a simple form of words will do. It might be sensible, if you are not going to be present, to hand a written notice of nomination to the member of staff operating the event, so they can show the police or licensing officer if they call. Again, the nominated person does not need to hold a personal licence, but if they do not, responsibility for the event rests entirely with you.