< Previous | Contents | Next >

The Licensing (Scotland) Bill: A Consultation on Liquor Licensing

Chapter 2
The National Policy Framework

The Nicholson Report

The Nicholson Report sets out the basis for a policy framework. The proposals cover the following:

• Licensing Boards should be under a duty to issue policy statements giving a broad indication of the policy likely to be adopted in the operation of the licensing system in their area.
• Boards would be required to consult the local forum on policy in general and to have regard to its view.
• In addition, Scottish Ministers should be empowered to issue and revise statutory guidance to Boards on the discharge of their functions.
• A new National Licensing Forum should be established to keep licensing law and practice under review and help to formulate guidance for Boards.

Consultation Summary

There was almost universal agreement to set up a new National Licensing Forum and to allow Ministers to issue statutory guidance. Of 29 responses on Board policy statements, a majority were in agreement.

Our Approach

Local flexibility to deal with local circumstances is a vital component of the Nicholson proposals and we agree with this approach. However, we are also aware of some concerns from the licensed trade who would like to see an element of national consistency. We consider that there is a place for both local and national policy within the new system. We believe that the wide local discretion given to Licensing Boards under these proposals must be balanced with a clear, effective and mandatory national framework within which Boards will be required to operate. We intend to build on the Nicholson approach to this framework, whilst giving greater weight and prominence to some measures to ensure appropriate national consistency, certain agreed national standards and to support the licensing principles.

We think that National and Local Forums are an important part of this approach and support those proposals. The National Forum should develop links with the Scottish Advisory Committee on Alcohol Misuse (SACAM) and at least one member of SACAM should sit on the National Forum.

We also believe that we will require a set of standard national premises licence conditions covering key issues. Those conditions would be worked up by the Expert Reference Group and, since they are an important part of the new system, would be set out in the Bill. Some of those conditions may remove the need for further local conditions. We would intend to draw up comprehensive statutory guidance for Boards covering a range of detailed issues, including the use of the national standard conditions.

In addition, at the local policy level, we would intend to set out certain mandatory requirements for Board Policy statements. We envisage a single consolidated policy statement to be reviewed every 2 years with power for Boards to revise in the interim (or to issue supplementary policy guidance) but only for new or unanticipated issues. The minimum content of the statement would also be mandatory.

The local and national frameworks would work together as follows:

Board Policy Statement
The Board would draw on the three elements above - national policy framework, content as set out in regulations and local knowledge.

< Previous | Contents | Next >