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3. LIQUOR LICENCES, BY TYPE OF PREMISES AND COUNCIL AREA
There were 17,234 liquor licences in force in Scotland at 31 st December 2006 ( Table 1). Thirty-seven per cent of those were for off-sale premises, 30 per cent for public houses, and 15 per cent for hotels (including restricted hotels). The remaining 18 per cent of licences were for restaurants, entertainment and refreshment premises.
The number of liquor licences in force at the end of 2006 was 47 higher (0.3 per cent) than in 2005, and 3,342 (24 per cent) higher than the figure for 1980.
Chart 1 Liquor licences in force in Scotland at 31 st December, by type of premises, 1980 and 2006
The balance of off-sale to on-sale licences has remained relatively stable since 1980 ( Tables 1 and 2). The proportion of on-sale licences of different types, however, has gradually changed over the past two decades; a comparison between 1980 and 2006 licences is illustrated in Chart 1. There has been a general decline in the number of hotel licences (excluding restricted hotels) from 2,959 (21 per cent of all licences) in 1980, to 2,249 (13 per cent of all licences) in 2006. In contrast, the number of restaurant, refreshment and entertainment licences has more than doubled since 1980, increasing from 8 per cent to 18 per cent over this period. As illustrated in Chart 2, there were 664 refreshment licences in force in Scotland in 2006, 60 (10 per cent) more than in 2005, almost double the number in 1996 and almost twenty times the number in 1980.
The distribution of licences by type of premises varied across the council areas ( Table 3 and 4). The more rural areas tended to have a higher proportion of hotel licences and a lower proportion of public house licences, while in the more densely populated areas the reverse tended to be the case. For example, at 31 st December 2006, 34 per cent of licences in the Eilean Siar council area were hotel or restricted hotel licences and 12 per cent were for public houses; whereas in Glasgow City, 38 per cent of licences were for public houses and only 4 per cent were for hotel and restricted hotel licences.
Chart 2 Number of Refreshment licences in Scotland, 1980 and 1996-2006
The number of off-sale licences rose from 4,899 in 1980 to 6,397 in 1999, an increase of 31 per cent. Since then the number of off-sales licences has remained rather static with 6,332 in 2006. The distribution of off-sale licences of different types is illustrated in Chart 3. Information on the type of premises was available for 5,276 off-sale licences, 83 per cent of the total. Of these, shops accounted for almost two thirds of known off-sale licences with 3,318. Supermarkets accounted for 658 licences (12 per cent of known off-sale licences) while garages accounted for 183 licences (3 per cent of known off-sale licences).
Chart 3 Off-sale premises by type
At 31 st December 2006, there were 42 licences in force for every 10,000 persons aged 18 years and over in Scotland; this figure has changed very little over the past five years ( Table 2). However, there was considerable variation in this rate between council areas. The areas with the highest number of licences in force per 10,000 population aged 18 years and over tended to be those in the more rural areas ( Table 3) such as Shetland Islands (91), Highlands (88), Orkney Islands (84) and Argyll and Bute (70). The more urban council areas outside of the cities tended to have the lowest number of licences per 10,000 population aged 18 years and over, for example East Dunbartonshire (19), East Renfrewshire (19), North Lanarkshire (27) and South Lanarkshire (27). Of the four main cities, Edinburgh had the most licences per 10,000 population aged 18 years and over (50), followed by Aberdeen (41), Glasgow (40) and Dundee (39).
At 31 st December 2006, there were 16 off-sale licences in force for every 10,000 persons aged 18 years and over in Scotland ( Table 4). This rate varied from as low as 8 in East Renfrewshire and 9 in East Dunbartonshire, up to 33 in the Shetland Islands and 37 in the Orkney Islands. Off-sale licences as a proportion of the total number of licences per council area was the highest in Clackmannanshire (51 per cent) and lowest in Highland and Argyll and Bute (30 per cent).
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