Rocky road ahead for TENs

One of the first activities to be affected by the proposed changes in licensing laws due to come into effect next month will be temporary event notices.

If the planned introductions go ahead, it will mean the local environmental health officer (EHO), in addition to police, can raise an objection to a TEN under any of the licensing objectives. If past experience is anything to go by, this is likely to be on noise and disturbance grounds.

There are no definitive figures to show how many complaints were made to local councils in respect of the operation of TENs or how many visits were made to premises as a result. Clearly, neighbours cannot object to the operation of a TEN, as I have explained before. Only the police are currently able to do so, and only under the crime prevention objective.

Any number of licensees put in for TENs every week and they are a popular method of catering for special pub events and festive activities. So far, the vast majority of these have passed off without problems, but the Home Office clearly saw an issue with disturbance and noise and has stepped in to close this ‘loophole’.

The problem for the trade is that in some areas environmental health officers are much more pro-active on potential nuisance and will begin to object as a matter of course, whether or not there has been any history of disturbance.

The issue, then, will be the additional workload placed on local authorities in a very short timescale. The result of an objection notice is either a compromise with the notice-giver or, if this is not possible, a hearing in front of the licensing sub-committee. Given the fact that a standard TEN may be given just 11 days before the event, that does not give the council much time to get its act together.

But a hearing must be held, after which either a counter-notice is given (preventing the event from going ahead) or the council imposes conditions consistent with those already on the premises licence.

Organising a hearing with councillors on what is a relatively common activity may add hugely to the costs of local authority licensing, not recouped by the cost of the TEN itself, which is currently £21.

All publicans will continue to have the right to issue a TEN for their own premises as and when they require it, and also to give a late notice in circumstances where there is a short-term requirement.

But these late notices can be vetoed by the police and there is, in those circumstances, no provision for a hearing.

The fact that a single TEN can now last for up to seven days (168 hours) may cause EHOs and police to look carefully at the circumstances and possibly seek to modify the way the event is run.

There will also be continuing pressure on the trade by councils to get their applications in far earlier than the minimum period allowed by law. Several websites I have looked at recommend 28 days or even longer, worded in such a way to suggest that this is more or less a requirement.

But, as I write, I am just wondering how on earth the Home Office is going to get everyone up to speed on all these changes in the time it has apparently set.

None of the procedural or guidance material has actually appeared, although some of it may well do so by the time you read this.

It is going to be a steep learning curve for all those involved in the process — and some midnight oil for licensing officers as they digest the new systems.