The decision mirrors similar extensions that were granted by the Government for the Jubilee and the Royal Wedding.
The Queen’s birthday is actually on 21 April, when she will become the first reigning monarch to reach the age of 90. However, as chance would have it, 11 June is the date of the Trooping of the Colour this year, which is the official annual celebration of the Queen’s birthday.
Openers
That date is, of course, the date of the opening matches for both England and Wales at Euro 2016 in France, with Wales’ opener being against Slovakia kicking off at 5pm, followed by England’s opening game against Russia, kicking off at 8pm.
The benefit is that any premises that are permitted to sell alcohol where the terminal hour ends before 1am will not need to apply for a temporary event notice to extend the hours to 1am.
However, there are a few important points to remember:
The extension to the hours does not include Scotland or Northern Ireland, and only applies to those premises holding a premises licence granted under the Licensing Act 2003 in England and Wales;
The extension only applies to when alcohol can be sold, and does not extend the hours during which hot food and drink can be sold, nor does it extend the hours during which regulated entertainment can be provided. If, therefore, you want hot food and drink up to 1am, and you don’t currently have that permission on your licence or, say, have a live band, you would still need to apply for a temporary event notice (TEN).
Any conditions that are attached to the premises licence must still be observed for the additional two hours. It is not like a TEN, where the conditions on the licence only apply in the event that the police or environmental health asks them to apply, they apply by default. Therefore, as an example, any requirement to have door staff on from 9pm would mean door staff would have to remain on duty until the premises closes later.
The permitted extension only allows the sale of alcohol to continue until 1am, and is, therefore, only of benefit to those premises where alcohol sales currently have to cease before 1am. If you have a licence to 1am already, then the concession granted by the Government will be of no benefit to you.
If you want to apply for later hours to, in some way, keep the differential between you and other premises in the immediate vicinity, then you need to apply for a TEN.
Extension
Licensees therefore, who were considering applying for an extension for that evening, will no longer need to worry.
However, as we have previously warned in articles, and as has been the case at previous football tournaments, you can expect your local police licensing officers to be checking with you when you are proposing to open. Good practice would suggest that you ought to contact them to let them know your plans for the evening.
We have known in the past, some police forces ‘suggest’ rather strongly, that licensees may want to consider introducing door staff and plastic glasses when showing such matches.
Police
The police may have made representations against any such extensions by way of TEN for the evening of 11 June, but now they won’t be able to unless licensees want to sell alcohol beyond 1am.
It would always be open to your local police to apply for a closure order for the area generally under Section 160 of the Licensing Act 2003, where the police are concerned that there would be disorder in any area as a result of the showing of the matches. Alternatively, the police could issue a closure notice under Section 76 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime & Policing Act 2014, if satisfied on reasonable grounds that showing the match at any particular premises is likely to result in disorder near the venue, and the notice is necessary to prevent that disorder from occurring.
It would be better not to get yourself into such a position where the police are faced with issuing any such notices and, therefore, partnership working and communication is key.
BBPA
The British Beer & Pub Association will be producing its normal advice that it gives to licensees who are proposing to show the Euro 2016 games, as they have done in previous years, which will be incorporating reference to the extensions being permitted by the Government.
So, let us hope that it is not only a happy birthday for the Queen, but it is also three points for England and Wales on 11 June.