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

Chapter 11
Registered Clubs

The Nicholson Report

The Nicholson Report recommends bringing all registered clubs within the new licensing system, therefore requiring them to comply with the requirement for both premises and personal licences. However, there should be recognition within the premises licence of any different provision necessary to recognise the special character of clubs.

Stakeholder Views

There was majority support for bringing registered clubs within the licensing system. Only 5 responses opposed this move. Those opposed included representatives of two existing types of registered club.

Our Approach

Members clubs cover a wide range of premises from miners welfare to sports clubs to university unions. Their very nature is to provide a welcome service for sections of the local community and therefore to help to support that community. We need to ensure that we can respect the special nature of members clubs but we also need to consider whether an entirely separate system is required to achieve that.

In our view, an entirely separate registration system is not required and we believe that registered clubs should be brought within the licensing system. We believe that we can adequately reflect their special nature through the conditions to be attached to the premises licence. We would intend to consult clubs further on what those conditions should be. For example, this may require separate arrangements for training requirements for staff and the standard of premises.

On personal licences, we are inclined to require clubs to have a designated personal licence holder responsible for running the premises since, in most cases, clubs employ a manager (or steward) who could be suitably trained. We do not feel this is necessarily incompatible with the constitution of clubs where responsibility for club business lies with the members. The personal licence simply allows the holder to manage the premises and supervise others. He or she is responsible for ensuring that the requirements of licensing law are followed. This does not override the overall interests of a management committee, as it does not override the interests of a bar owner who is not the designated personal licence holder. However, we would like further views on whether this will be a suitable approach for very small clubs with limited resources.

We agree that both the police and Liquor Licensing Standards Officers should have a right of access to clubs as they will to all other licensed premises.

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