The Personal Licence
Just as you take a driving test to enable you to drive cars and then hold a driving licence, so it is with selling alcohol and holding a Personal Licence. Similarly the Personal Licence is “portable” – you can take out a licence in your home town but move to another town and use it there. The licence now lasts indefinitely. (April 2015).
In order to qualify for a Personal Licence an applicant must:
- be over 18 years of age
- not had a personal licence forfeited in the previous 5 years
- possess an accredited licensing qualification (see my separate article on how to get a personal licence)
- not been convicted of any relevant or foreign offence
If an applicant does not fulfil any of the first three criteria then the LA must refuse a personal licence and if the applicant meets all the criteria the LA must issue a licence.
Relevant or Foreign Offences
The LA must inform the police of any conviction for any relevant or foreign offence and the local police chief may object to the application for a personal licence.
Relevant offences include:
- serious crime – theft, burglary, firearms, violence, handling stolen good
- serious dishonesty – deception, false accounting, evasion of duty
- certain sexual offences
- offences under the Licensing Act 2003 or previous licensing laws
- misuse of drugs – possession, supply or production
- offences under the Road Traffic Act relating to drugs or alcohol and the Trade Descriptions act relating to alcohol
This list is by no means exhaustive and this is another good reason why you should have a solicitor help you with your licence application.
In order to prove your bona fides in respect of not having any relevant convictions you will be required to submit to a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and obtain a CRB certificate. You can get this from Disclosure Scotland (click here ) or from CRB Disclosures (click here)
If you are convicted of a relevant or foreign offence whilst holding a personal licence you must inform the court that you hold a personal licence and similarly the LA where your personal licence was issued. The issuing LA will inform the police of your conviction and if the police believe that continuing to hold a personal licence would prevent the crime objective being fulfilled they can insist on a licence hearing which ultimately could lead to ones personal licence being revoked.
Other offences include attempting or carrying out licensable activities without a premises licence; knowingly allowing disorderly conduct on the premises; selling or trying to sell alcohol to a person who is drunk; obtaining alcohol for a person who is drunk (i.e. customers buying alcohol for other customers who are drunk).
Temporary Event Notices
Temporary Event Notices TENs are used to allow the temporary sale or supply of alcohol, provision of entertainment or provision of late night refreshments at premises without their own premises licence. Applying for a TENs is straightforward and can easily be done without the need for a solicitor’s help.
You have to give ten working days notice before an event to be covered by a TENs and the following conditions apply:
- a personal licence holder can use up to 50 TENs a year
- a premises can have 15 TENs a year
- maximum time covered by a TENs is 96 hours with the maximum aggregate duration covered by TENs of 15 days
- the maximum people attending a TENs event is 499
On April 6th 2012, some key changes took effect in relation to TENs because of the implementation of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act (2011).
Firstly the environmental health authority will now be able to object to a TEN application, whereas before only the police could object.
Secondly both police and the environmental health officer (EHO) will be able to object on the basis of all the licensing objectives. Before the change the only objective taken into consideration was that of crime prevention. Public Nuisance (such as noise coming from your premises or event) or the likely behaviour of your customers will be taken into account.
The last change is that the licensing authority will be given the discretionary power to apply existing license conditions (such as terminal hours and numbers attending) to a TEN if the police or EHO objects to the original application.