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Taking off-sales home
QUnder the new law, what is the position on people taking off-sales home after a bar has closed? We allow people to stay on the premises for about half an hour and then ask them to drink up and leave. Can they take off-sales home with them then?
AThe new licensing laws do not cover many of the detailed conditions of the old Act and concentrate on sale or supply of alcohol itself. There is nothing about taking off-sales home after time, and no provision which prevents it or makes it an offence.
You will have to look at the conditions on your licence. Some licences repeat the words of the 1964 Act with regard to "permitted hours" and state that it does not prevent the taking from the premises of alcohol sold during permitted hours "for the first 20 minutes after the end of those hours." What these licences do not say is that it is not illegal to take it from the premises after that time as well.
So unless you have a specific prohibition on taking away off-sales - which is challengeable - there is no restriction and your customers can certainly take their purchases home with them.
Legal location of DPS
QDuring a licensing officer's recent visit to pubs in this area, he said that the council expected the person named as designated premises supervisor (DPS) to work at the actual premises, rather than in some office miles away. We are part of a managed-house group and our DPS supervises four pubs. Is this OK?
A There is no specific legal requirement that the DPS must work behind the bar of the premises which he or she supervises. In fact, there is no specific duty for the DPS at all, other than to exist!
As long as sales of alcohol are authorised or made by someone who holds a personal licence, mandatory conditions of the Licensing Act are being complied with. It follows that a licensing authority cannot insist that the DPS should work on the premises, although they may express a preference that this should be the case.
There could be an issue concerning proper conduct of the premises if the DPS role was virtually non-existent and therefore the person named was not in day-to-day charge of the premises.
This would only be brought up if there was a review of a licence due to misconduct of the premises. But if everything is running smoothly in management terms, this is a non-starter.
Consecutive event conditions
Q I cater for outside events. Someone has told me that I cannot have two separate events on consecutive days at different venues. Is this true?
A No, it isn't. You cannot have two temporary event notices (TENs) running consecutively on the same premises, but as a personal licence holder you can apply for up to 50 TENs a year, as long as you do not breach the maximum of 12 for each venue.
A 24-hour break is required between two notices issued by the same person (or associate) for the same premises. Different premises, or different people giving notice for the same premises, are allowed.
You can have a TEN on the same premises for up to four days (96 hours) at a time, so it is quite possible to run events on consecutive days at the same venue.
The notice form asks you to state your cumulative total and the council will check whether you have exceeded the required limits in any way.
