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

Chapter 13
Board Procedures

The Nicholson Report

The Nicholson Committee sees a major shortcoming of the present legislation as the scattering of purely procedural provisions throughout the Act. Following the example set by other pieces of legislation, in particular the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982, they recommend that such provisions should be set out in a self-contained form, preferably as rules introduced by secondary legislation.

To ensure consistency and ease of use the Committee recommends that the prescribed forms used by applicants and objectors should be standard for all licensing areas and available from council offices. Forms should be available and accepted in electronic format although they recognise there is a need to consider systems to tie an application to its fee payment.

At present, for an objection to be considered by the Board, it is up to the objector to ensure the licence applicant receives the objection before the Board hearing. The Committee sees this requirement as unduly onerous particularly as the lay objector usually does not benefit from professional representation. They therefore recommend that this should in future be undertaken by the Licensing Board.

A Licensing Board is under a duty to publish in a local newspaper the list of applications to be considered. The Committee sees the necessity for the list but recommends that in future lists of applications should be grouped by postcode number.

The Daniels Report

At present an applicant for a licence should give 3 weeks' notice in writing to every occupier of premises situated in the same building. The Daniels Committee does not believe that this system operates successfully. They therefore recommend an A3 notice, set out in a recognised national format, to be displayed for 21 days by the applicant outside the premises within which time any objections or representations should be made. A minimum of 7 days' notice should be given of
Board meetings.

The Committee also recommends the adoption of the late objection provisions from the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982. This would allow the Board to consider a late objection if they were satisfied of the reason for its lateness.

The Committee believes that it should be mandatory for Licensing Boards to display applications on their websites (by 2005) and that objections and representations could in future be notified to the Board by hand, post, fax or e-mail. The Group also sees a need for a clear unambiguous process for procedural failures by applicants, those making objections or representations and clerks.

The Committee is concerned about the atmosphere and formality of Board hearings and believes there is a need to ensure that both applicants and objectors feel relaxed and therefore capable of presenting their views to the best of their ability within a process that they understand and trust.

The Group therefore recommends that the National Licensing Forum should issue national guidance with the aim of making the process of appearing at a Licensing Board hearing less intimidating and more consistent.

Consultation Summary

There was general approval for the suggested modernisation of the system. Most comments centred on the need to publish application lists in the local newspapers with several Boards questioning its usefulness compared to cost and a concern that listing by postcode was not the clearest way to convey application information. Several responses suggested that alphabetical order by street and ward would be more appropriate.

Our Approach

We support the proposal for national standard electronic forms, believing this will simplify the system for its users and ensure a consistent standard throughout Scotland. We appreciate that further work may be needed to ensure that local authorities are able to tie an electronic form to its fee payment. We also believe it should be possible for objections and representations to be notified by hand, post, fax or e-mail.

We broadly support the notification procedures and procedural improvements suggested by the Daniels Committee. We will also ask the National Licensing Forum to design the A3 pro-forma notice which will have to be displayed at proposed licensed premises.

We support the improved use of websites and will work with local authorities to ensure information is available on line before the new system takes effect.

When these new improved systems are in place we see no reason to continue with the process of advertising applications in local newspapers.

In line with the recommendations in Chapter 6, it would in future be for the Board to notify the applicant of objections.

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