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Scottish liquor licensing statistics
15/08/2008
Scotland's Chief Statistician today published Scottish Liquor Licensing Statistics 2007.
This contains details of the number of liquor licences which were in force at December 31, 2007, as well as the number of applications and the number of licences suspended during 2007.
The main findings are:
- There were 17,021 liquor licences in force in Scotland at December 31, 2007, 213 less than at 31st December 2006 and the equivalent of 42 licenses for every 10,000 persons aged 18 years and over in Scotland
- Over a third (37 per cent) of the licences in force in Scotland were for off-sale premises and a further 30 per cent were for public houses
- The spread of the types of licences in Scotland has been gradually widening over the last two decades. Since 1980, there has been a 20-fold increase in the number of refreshment licences (from 34 to 673) and a 64 per cent increase in the number of restaurant licences (from 921 to 1,514). The number of hotel licences (excluding restricted hotels) decreased by 27 per cent (from 2,959 to 2,174) over this period
- The number of off-sale licenses rose from 4,899 in 1980 to a peak of 6,397 in 1999, an increase of 31 per cent, and has remained fairly static since then, with 6,232 in 2007. Shops accounted for 52 per cent of known off-sale licences while supermarkets accounted for 9 per cent of known off-sale licences in 2007
- During 2007, licensing boards considered a total of 705 new applications for liquor licenses, a similar figure to that for 2006. Of these, 666 applications (94 per cent) were granted a licence. Two per cent of applications for on-sale licenses were refused, compared with 10 per cent of those for off-sales
- Licensing boards in Scotland suspended 29 licences in 2007. Of these, 14 of those licences suspended were for on-sale licences with 8 of those licences for public houses
- A total of 2,017 liquor licensing offences were recorded by the police in 2006-07. This is an increase of 40 per cent from 1,439 in 2005/06. This increase is mostly due to a large increase in the number of offences related to the sale of drink to people under 18. Of the 212 convictions in 2006-07, where a liquor licensing offence was the main offence, 83 per cent resulted in a financial penalty