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2. Licensing Policy Statements
Background
12. Section 6 of the Act requires a Licensing Board to prepare and publish a statement of its licensing policy every three years. Licensing policies must be published before the Board carries out any function in respect of individual applications made under the terms of the Act. During the three year period, the policy must be kept under review and the Licensing Board may make to it such revisions as it considers appropriate. For example, such revisions may be made in response to feedback from the Local Licensing Forum.
13. Before determining its policy for any three year period, the Licensing Board must consult the persons listed in section 6(3) of the Act. These are:
- the Local Licensing Forum for the Board's area;
- if the membership of the Forum is not representative of the interests of all of the persons specified in paragraph 2(6) of schedule 2 of the Act, that is: holders of premises licences and personal licences; the chief constable for the police area in which the Forum's area is situated; persons having functions relating to health, education or social work; young people; and persons resident within the Forum's area, then the board must consult such persons or persons as appear to the Boards to be representative of those interests of which the membership is not representative, and
- such other persons as the Board thinks appropriate.
14. Boards should have regard to the views of all these persons/bodies listed and the views should be given appropriate weight when the policy is determined. It is recognised that in some areas, it may be difficult to identify persons or bodies representative for all parts of industry affected by the provisions of the Act, but Licensing Boards must make reasonable efforts to identify and engage with the persons or bodies concerned.
Licensing Board should note that the terms of the Act do not prevent them consulting other bodies or persons before determining their policies. However Board should keep in mind best value when considering the resource implications of consulting with large group of people.
Licensing Objectives
15. All statements of policy should seek to promote the 5 licensing objectives.. In setting its policy, a Licensing Board must have regard to this Guidance and give appropriate weight to the views of those consulted.
16. Licensing Boards' statements of policy may set out a general approach to the making of licensing decisions, but they must not ignore or be inconsistent with provisions in the Act.
17. Similarly, no statement of policy should override the right of any person to make representations on an application or to seek a review of a licence where provision has been made for them to do so in the Act.
18. Statements of policies should make clear that licensing is about regulating the sale of alcohol, and for regulating licensed premises and other premises on which alcohol is sold; and for connected purposes within the terms of the Act, and that the conditions attached to various authorisations will be focused on matters which are within the control of individual licensees and others in possession of relevant authorisations.
19. Whether or not incidents can be regarded as being "in the vicinity" of licensed premises is a question of fact and will depend on the particular circumstances of the case. In cases of dispute, the question will ultimately be decided by the courts. A statement of policy should also make clear that licensing law is not the primary mechanism for the general control of nuisance and antisocial behaviour by individuals once they are away from the licensed premises and, therefore, beyond the direct control of the individual, club or business holding the licence, certificate or authorisation concerned.
Overprovision of licensed premises
20. Guidance for Boards on the issue of overprovision of licensed premises is provided at section 3 of this guidance. Boards should note however that the duty under section 7 to assess overprovision will not be commenced until the main provisions of the Act come into force in 2009.
21. This is in recognition of the scale of the task of assessing the capacity of licensed premises in Boards' areas, as required by section 7. Boards will have more time to assess the number and capacity of licensed premises and in doing so will be able to make a more accurate assessment of overprovision based on number and capacity of premises. By autumn 2009 the transition period will have completed and all the new licence applications will have been processed. This will provide Boards with a more accurate baseline of information, including capacity of premises, which can be used to inform their overprovision policy.
Licensing hours
22. With regard to licensing hours, the statement of policy should provide a general steer on what the Board's policy on hours is, although each application should be considered on its individual merits. Statements of policy should recognise that licensing hours are important and considerations should be given as to ways that large numbers of customers leaving premises simultaneously is appropriately managed. This is necessary to reduce friction outside late night establishments, at taxi ranks and other sources of transport which can lead to disorder and disturbance. Licensing hours should not however unnecessarily inhibit the development of thriving and safe evening and night-time local economies which are important for investment and employment locally, and attractive to domestic and international tourists. This should not, however, compromise the ability to resource local services associated with the night-time economy.
23. Licensing Boards must observe the statutory requirement set out in section 64 of the Act which provides an assumption against routine 24 hour opening of licensed premises. Any application received by a Licensing Board from a premises wishing to open for 24 hours must only be granted in limited exceptional circumstances.
24. Licensing Boards must be aware that Ministers have determined that "exceptional circumstances" means only special events and does not apply to applications, for example, from licensed premises routinely requesting a licence to sell alcohol, for 24 hours. In considering applications for licensed hours Boards may wish to consider applications for up to 18 hours as being deemed to be reasonable. However, local circumstances and views of Local Licensing Forums should always be considered. Any application for licensed hours for more than 18 hours should be given greater and more serious consideration by Boards in all cases.
25. Special events may include for example: -
- One off local or national festivals
26. Licensed hours will be those agreed following the Board's consideration of the operating plan and any national and local licence conditions applied. Particular attention should be drawn to those premises wishing to open after 1.00am since mandatory licence conditions will apply. Boards should also be reminded that when considering licensed hours for premises, anyone, can make representations to the Board. As such they may request a review of the licence. It is important that in developing its policy on licensed hours the Board must take account of the views of the Local Licensing Forum so that any policy published has the backing and confidence of the local community. Further to this, following a review, reducing the licensed hours can be one of the sanctions applicable against a licensee.
Relationship with other strategies
27. Ministers recommend that statements of policy should provide clear indications of how the Licensing Boards will take into account such issues as; local crime prevention, health, planning, transport, tourism, race equality schemes, cultural strategies and any other plans introduced for the management of town centres and the night-time economy when developing policy statements. Some of these strategies may not directly related to the promotion of the five licensing objectives, but, indirectly, impact upon them. Co-ordination and integration of such policies, strategies and initiatives are therefore important.
Transport
28. A statement should describe any arrangements (formal or informal) agreed between the police and Licensing Standards Officers for reporting views or concerns to the local authority transport committee or other bodies with responsibility for transport in their area. It is recognised, however, that this may not be achievable for the first policy statements prepared during transition, but this is something Boards may wish to adopt in subsequent reviews of policy statements. The police are best placed to advise on the need to disperse people from town and city centres swiftly and safely to avoid high concentrations of people in particular vicinities which may lead to disorder, disturbance or pressures on public transport facilities.
Tourism, employment, planning and building control
29. Policy should also indicate:
- that arrangements have been made for Licensing Boards to receive, when appropriate, reports on the needs of the local tourist economy for the area to ensure that these are reflected in their considerations;
- that planning, building control and licensing regimes will be properly separated to avoid duplication and inefficiency. Applications for premises licences must be from businesses with planning consent for the property concerned. Licensing applications should not be a re-run of the planning application and should not cut across decisions taken by the local authority planning committee, nor should they seek to challenge decisions taken by that committee. Similarly, the granting by the Licensing Board of any variation of a licence which involves a material alteration to a building would not relieve the applicant of the need to apply for planning permission or building control 4 where appropriate. Proper liaison and communications should be assured between Licensing Boards and planning committee on the situation regarding licensed premises in the area, including the general impact of alcohol related crime and disorder. This would ensure planning committee have regard to such matters when taking its decisions and avoid any unnecessary overlap.
Duplication
30. Statements of licensing policy should include a firm commitment to avoid duplication with other regulatory regimes so far as possible. For example, legislation governing health and safety at work and fire safety will place a range of general duties on the self-employed, employers and operators of venues both in respect of employees and of the general public when on the premises in question. Similarly, many aspects of fire safety will be covered by existing and future legislation.
Discretionary conditions
31. Boards need to be aware of the availability of discretionary licence conditions that are available to them and the relationship between them and the mandatory licence conditions. These conditions are set out in the document containing the package of draft regulations accompanying this guidance.
Content of policy statements
32. Policy Statements should provide local communities with a clear indication of the relevant Licensing Board's policy on how it will carry out its functions under the Act. In particular the policy statement should include: -
- A clear indication of the Board's policy on the granting of licensed hours generally and where different polices may apply in different localities according to local circumstances;
- A statement on their policy on overprovision [as required by section 7 of the Act] and which localities (if appropriate) have been determined to be overprovided for by the Board, or are approaching overprovision; This can include statement as to the Board's policy on the provision of adult entertainment in their area;
- A general statement on how many Licensing Standards Officers the authority intends to employ, their role and remit, and how they can be contacted; and
- A statement of the agreed procedures the Board has developed for the handling applications, objections, representations, delegation of functions and review hearings etc. for premises and personal licences.
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