Helpful hints on personal licences

24-Apr-2014 - Last updated on 25-Apr-2014 at 15:24 GMT

Police officers may want to see your personal licence

Now that we have some certainty over the future of personal licences, in that they are to remain with us for the foreseeable future, it is worth reiterating the legal requirements associated with the possession of such a licence.

Some of the information below is particularly pertinent when you consider there will be no future requirement for a renewal of the personal licence, which would have acted as a prompt to those personal licence holders who have failed to keep their details up-to-date.

The holder of the personal licence is required to:

■ Produce the document either to a police officer or licensing officer when on a premises either to make — or authorise — alcohol supplies, where this has to be authorised either by a premises licence or a temporary event notice.

■ Notify the licensing authority, as soon as reasonably practicable, after they have been convicted of a “relevant offence”. If you are in any doubt as to what this is, it would be very sensible to take legal advice because there are some general definitions of offences.

■ On being charged with a “relevant offence”, the holder must produce the personal licence to the court at their first appearance or, alternatively, inform it that they are a personal licence holder and make sure the court is aware of the identity of the issuing licensing authority.

■ Notify the authorities, as soon as reasonably practicable, of any change of name or address. This is the most often overlooked responsibility of a personal licence holder, and licensing authorities will frequently pick up any change of name or address when a personal licence holder applies to become a designated premises supervisor (DPS) and the name or address on the DPS application does not match the name or address on their personal licence. This is easy enough for a licensing authority to spot if it is the same authority dealing with the DPS change and the personal licence but, even if not, many authorities — on receipt of a DPS variation — will check the details of the personal licence holder with the authority that issued the latter document.

Remember the reminders in relation to the changes of name and address are particularly pertinent, since personal licence holders will not in any way be “prompted” by the renewal coming around.

Check over your personal licence now to make sure that it is fully up-to-date.