How many TENs can I apply for if I don’t hold a personal licence?

Q: I recently issued a temporary event notice (TEN) for a small charity event, which involved the sale of alcohol at the village hall. It was the fifth TEN I had issued this year. ​

I don’t currently hold a personal licence, and so I thought I was able to hold five TENs in any year. My licensing authority has told me that since my wife also issued one for the village hall last month, that this has taken me over the limit of five. Surely the limit applies just to myself rather than my wife and I?​

A:​ Your licensing authority is right I am afraid. It is a much ignored (more through ignorance than anything else) sub-section of the Licensing Act, that the maximum number of TENs anybody can issue (50 for a personal licence holder, or five for a non-personal licence holder in a calendar year) includes not only TENs, which are issued by the individual themselves, but also by their ‘associates’. Associates includes your wife.

Therefore, I am afraid you will need to find someone else to issue the TEN (other than your wife, of course) or, alternatively, apply for a personal licence so you can hold 50.