Still these licence conditions linger

26-Mar-2012 - Last updated on 12-Mar-2017 at 02:06 GMT

I have been having another look at some premises licences for out-of-town pubs recently and find it amazing that the raft of conditions contain long, direct quotes from the ‘old’ Licensing Act throughout.

Three licences have a reference to ‘railway refreshment rooms’ even though the pubs concerned are nowhere near the tracks — Dr Beeching saw to that! All of them have drinking-up times at 20 minutes and half an hour, which no longer apply, and nearly all have a ban on under-14s in the bar. The definition of a ‘bar’ is given in each case, even though there is no such definition in the Licensing Act 2003.

All this extraneous wording, taking up an additional one or two extra sheets of A4, is clearly a hangover from the so-called ‘embedded conditions’ of which great play was made at the time of transition, back in 2005. It does not seem to occur to those local authorities that the 1964 Act was repealed and replaced by a new system of licensing, with new rules.
For example, it is not illegal for young persons under 14 to be in the bar, as long as they are accompanied. No such condition would be imposed on a new licence and we cannot run two conflicting provisions side by side in this way, especially as the new rule has the age of 16, not 14.

There are also some convoluted mentions of ‘permitted hours’, even though this phrase appears nowhere in the current law. I have seen Christmas Day still restricted to 12noon until 3pm and 7pm to 10.30pm, notwithstanding that the licence gives the trading hours as 10am until 11.30pm throughout the year.

It would be a counsel of perfection to suggest that all such licences can be brought up to date in the twinkling of an eye. In some parts of the country there is a notable reluctance to change these things, but the idea that this is confined to the shires is completely wrong. Even in London there are still licences with child restrictions of this type on them and just you try and get rid of them through a minor variation. It will be resisted, as it might impact on the licensing objectives.

However, next time you are making some operational changes, do take a careful look at these restrictions and see if you cannot clean up your own licence and make it more ‘user friendly’.