Following its consultation in the summer, the Government has announced its final proposals to overhaul licensing law in England and Wales.  The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill which includes most of these proposals, received its First Reading in the House of Commons on 30 November 2010. We take an in-depth look at what’s in it. Today, we consider some of the stings not provided for in the Bill and also those proposals that didn’t make it.

to be reviewed

The Home Secretary will review the effects of many of the amendments proposed in the Bill (with the exception of the late night levy) five years after they have all come into force.

a sting in the tail

It should be noted the Government has failed to revoke the mandatory conditions placed on Premises Licences during this year. A number of Licensing Authorities have held back on enforcing these to any great extent following the Government’s suggestion they might be revoked. We have no doubt that Licensing Authorities and the Police will be contemplating cracking down on these in short order.

You may recall the Government’s intention to force Licensing Authorities to accept all but irrelevant Police representations. We were concerned this would place the Police in a much stronger and, indeed, unique position in that the onus would be placed on the Licence Holder to show that the representations and recommendations were not relevant. We felt it would also bring into question whether or not those representations and recommendations were reasonable. This suggestion has been dropped. Instead, the Secretary of State’s Guidance will be amended so that there should be a presumption that all reasonable recommendations from the police should be accepted unless there is clear evidence to the contrary. This may continue to be a problem for new Premises Licences or variations to existing ones as the Licence Holder will find it difficult to obtain clear evidence about activities which are not currently provided at the time of the hearing.

The Government also suggested that Licensees would have to show the potential impact of their application on the local area. Again, this has been left out of the Bill, but the Government intends to amend the Statutory Guidance to compel Licensees and applicants to consider these matters. In particular, the Home Office response to the consultation in the summer states: -

Applicants will be required to provide contextual information on issues such as the local area’s social-demographic characteristics, specific local crime and disorder issues and an awareness of the local environment.

It is unlikely most applicants will have access to this information themselves. It is highly likely they will need to engage the services of professionals to provide this, increasing the costs of making an application in the process. better news!

In case you are depressed by the news on licensing reform over the past five days, you should take note of the measures which have not made it to the Bill:

To make prevention of harm to health a licensing objective.

To enable community groups to become Responsible Authorities.

To force Magistrates to remit Appeals back to the Licensing Authority.

To bring Review decisions into immediate effect, before any appeal process begins.

To ban below cost sales of alcohol.

To increase licensing fees.

This does at least show the Government has listened to the trade on some of the issues raised during the consultation period.

What do you think? Is the balance of these proposals right? Please leave your comments below.

If you have any queries relating to this article, please contact either Lisa Croft, Michael Parrott or Rob Westwood-Payne on 01242 285855 or email us.

As this information has been prepared by Maitland Walker LLP as a general guide, we recommend you seek specific professional advice before acting on any information contained within it. No liability can be accepted by Maitland Walker LLP for any action taken or not taken as a result of this information.

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