All Change (Again): Rebalancing the Licensing Act

The Licensing Act 2003 was consulted upon and took around five years to come into force. For this latest consultation, the response deadline is 8th September 2010 and the intention appears to be to legislate as soon as possible using the Police Reform & Social Responsibility Bill, which will be produced later this year.

The Home Office’s stance is that licensing decisions needed to be “rebalanced in favour of communities”.

Briefly, the changes being proposed are:

• Giving licensing authorities the power to refuse licence applications or call for a licence review without requiring relevant representations from a responsible authority.
• Removing the need for licensing authorities to demonstrate their decisions on licences ‘are necessary’ for (rather than of benefit to) the promotion of the licensing objectives.
• Reducing the evidential burden of proof required by licensing authorities in making decisions on licence applications and licence reviews.
• Increasing the weight licensing authorities will have to give to relevant representations and objection notices from the police.
• Simplifying Cumulative Impact Policies to allow licensing authorities to have more control over outlet density.
• Increasing the opportunities for local residents or their representative groups to be involved in licensing decisions, without regard to their immediate proximity to premises.
• Enabling more involvement of local health bodies in licensing decisions by designating health bodies as a responsible authority and seeking views on making health a licensing objective.
• Amending the process of appeal to avoid the costly practice of rehearing licensing decisions.
• Enabling licensing authorities to have flexibility in restricting or extending opening hours to reflect community concerns or preferences.
• Repealing the unpopular power to establish Alcohol Disorder Zones and allow licensing authorities to use a simple adjustment to the existing fee system to pay for any additional policing needed during late-night opening.
• Overhauling substantially the system of Temporary Event Notices, which will give the police more time to object, enable all responsible authorities to raise objections, increase the notification period and reduce the number of notices that can be applied for by personal licence holders.
• Introducing tougher sentences for persistent underage sales.
• Triggering automatic licence reviews following persistent underage sales.
• Banning the sale of alcohol below cost price.
• Enabling local authorities to increase licensing fees so that they are based on full cost recovery.
• Enabling licensing authorities to revoke licences due to non-payment of fees.
• Consulting on the impact of the Mandatory Licensing Conditions Order and whether the current conditions should be removed.

This news is a further blow to the licensed trade, which is already struggling through the recession. The trade will have just six weeks to convince government that no further changes are required to the Licensing Act.

The Home Office is to hold a series of five regional workshop events around the country to consult on its proposed changes to the Licensing Act — but the consultation period has been truncated to six weeks.

The regional events will take place in London, Newcastle, Cardiff, Blackpool and Birmingham in a similar fashion to the discussions which took place last year over the mandatory code.

A certain tabloid newspaper has hailed the consultation as the “end of 24-hour drinking.”  Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR) chief executive, Nick Bish, said: “I am appalled. They are trying to take ownership of a consultation document and assuming it will all be passed through. Of course, we all know that the majority of places that have 24-hour licences are the supermarkets.”

Despite the short consultation period, ALMR is optimistic that the trade can make its points well. He referred back to the workshops and consultation on the mandatory code, which led to a number of conditions being dropped, including mandatory staff training and a compulsory Challenge-21 policy.

“If the government wants jobs — we can do that. An average pub employs around 10 people. If the government wants to collect taxes — we can do that too. If our pubs are making profit then we pay more than our fair share. But to make that profit, we need to be left alone. The government has to make its mind up — does it want to follow a [tabloid] agenda or back the industry and reap the associated benefits?

“We have to approach the consultation in a positive fashion.”

The government has already consulted a number of key partners prior to publishing this consultation, holding eight meetings with over 55 stakeholders from the on and off trade, alcohol producers, police and local authorities, health and voluntary sectors.

The consultation runs for 6 weeks from 28th July to the 8th September and covers England and Wales, where these proposals apply. Responses can be submitted online through the Home Office website. The consultation document has been available on the Home Office website from noon on Wednesday 28th July 2010.  See www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/consultations.

The consultation seeks views on the implementation of the proposals rather than the proposals themselves, stating: “as the key commitments outlined have been published in the Coalition Agreement, this consultation primarily seeks views on the implications of implementing the proposals rather than inviting views on the commitments themselves.”   Worryingly therefore, this is now a done deal, with only the details of how to actually bring in the changes open for discussion.

Have you say at Maria Guida’s blog: www.licentiouslaw.co.uk/all-change-again-rebalancing-the-licensing-act