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

Chapter 5
Licensing Hours

The Nicholson Report

The Nicholson Report proposes the removal of the current statutory permitted hours. These are:

Off-sales: Mon-Sat 8am until 10pm/Sun 12.30pm to 10pm
On-sales: Mon-Sat 11am until 11pm/Sun 12.30pm until 2.30pm and 6.30pm to 11pm

For on-sales, licensees can also apply for an extension of these hours (renewable annually) and each Board may operate a different discretionary policy on those hours and attached conditions.

The Nicholson Committee believes that the current system is unnecessarily restrictive and has been almost completely eroded by the widespread use of extensions. The Committee is therefore in favour of a system where licensees specify their hours in operating plans submitted to the Board for approval and drawn up with regard to the Board's published policy statement.

Consultation Summary

There were 50 responses from a range of interests - 35 in agreement. Most Boards supported the proposals - other views were divided. Concerns were expressed about the potential for longer opening hours than at present. The Scottish Licensed Trade Association and the Bar, Entertainment and Dance Association are strongly opposed to the removal of permitted hours. They believe that this will increase competition and lead to further irresponsible promotional activity. The Scottish Grocers Federation also opposes the removal of permitted hours - they would like to retain and extend the permitted hours for off-sales. The Scottish Council for Development and Industry supported the abolition of permitted hours and discretion for local Boards. They also suggested that the National Licensing Forum could take a strategic overview across the country.

Our Approach

We agree with the basis of the Nicholson approach and feel that the removal of permitted hours is in line with modernising a system, the original intention of which has been eroded by the practice of giving regular extensions to those hours. We are content for Boards to determine opening hours to suit local circumstances. However, it will be a mandatory requirement for Boards to set out their policy on opening hours clearly in their policy statement. Whilst it may be appropriate for Boards to take the view that a particular premises should be granted longer opening hours, they would be expected to offer justification for that decision. Policy on opening hours would have to be discussed with the local forum, including police, trade and community interests and the Board would have to have regard to their views.

However, we also understand some of the concerns of both trade and health groups who, for different reasons, oppose longer opening hours, particularly 24-hour opening.

We made it clear in the debate in the Scottish Parliament in September 2003 that there was little or no argument for any premises to routinely sell alcohol throughout the day and night and that routine 24-hour opening was not the way we intended to go.

We believe that there should be a presumption against 24-hour opening in Scotland for on and off-sales. We will consider further whether this presumption can be set out in the legislation.

Boards will be entitled to agree exceptions to that policy in specific limited circumstances. The circumstances in which exceptions could be made would be set out in statutory guidance.

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