Blanket conditions against spirit of the Licensing Act, lawyer argues

A leading licensing solicitor has hit out at the blanket conditions pubs could face under a mandatory code of practice, arguing it would be against the spirit of the Licensing Act.

Hamish Lawson, of law firm Cobbetts, criticised the way that pubs could have blanket conditions imposed on them under the code, during the British Beer & Pub Association's Spring key issues forum in Manchester today.

"It departs from the Licensing Act that states that every premises should be treated on its own merits," he said.

He said under the current Act pubs "know where they stand" with a formal review.

"They say what problems you are supposed to be causing and you have your day in court and the power of appeal," he added.

Lee Le Clerq, the BBPA North's regional secretary, also criticised the code for drawing on the "unscientific and biased" approach of the KPMG report.

He said the purpose of the report was to investigate the industry standard document which was only meant to be a guidance and the report had a heavy bias towards town centres.

The premises looked at only represented 15 per cent of pubs in the country, he added.

The KPMG said there were a number of underage drinkers, but Le Clerq said it did not present any evidence to show this was the case

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