Falkirk Council

The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005| comes into effect at 5.00am on 1st September, 2009 and replaces all existing legislation governing the sale and supply of alcohol in Scotland. The Act introduces five strategic Licensing Objectives namely:

preventing crime and disorder,
securing public safety,
preventing public nuisance,
protecting and improving public health, and
protecting children from harm.

The Police and local Licensing Boards| have been given new powers, new offences under the Act have been created and Test Purchasing of alcohol has been introduced.

The Act requires all local Licensing Boards to publish a Statement of Licensing Policy| setting out the Boards' views and requirements in support of the five Licensing Objectives and to review these on a three yearly basis. Licensing Boards are required to have regard to the five Licensing Objectives when determining applications etc. The old system of quarterly Board meetings has ended and meetings of the Board will now be timetabled| on a more frequent basis.

The familiar forms of licences for Public Houses, Hotels, Off-Sales, Entertainment etc are replaced by a single form of Premises Licence| and each premises is required to have a Designated Premises Manager who must be the holder of a new Personal Licence|. All sales of alcohol must be authorised by a personal licence holder and it is anticipated that many premises will have more than one Personal Licence Holder. Members Clubs| are being brought into the mainstream licensing system for the first time and all servers of alcohol will require to have undertaken training.

Other features of the Act include – Mandatory Licence Conditions, Local Licensing Forums|, Licensing Standards Officers, new requirements in regard to notification of applications to neighbouring residents etc and enhanced rights for members of the community to make objections and complaints|.

The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 permits application to be made by a holder of a premises licence, a personal licence or a voluntary organisation for an occasional licence. An example an occasion where this type of licence would be appropriate would be a wedding reception held in a community centre or a church hall.

Notification of an application for an occasional licence is made to both the Chief Constable and the Licensing Standards Officer who have 21 days in which to respond. The Chief Constable may recommend refusal of the application if it appears to him necessary for the purposes of the crime prevention objective.

Applications are advertised on the Falkirk Council website for a period of 7 days and any objections to the application must be made to the Licensing Section within this period. It is essential that applications are lodged with Licensing Section well in advance of the event to allow sufficient time for the determination process. A minimum of 42 days is recommended.

A link to The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005| is to be found here and links are also provided to various Regulations made under the Act.

Scottish statutory instruments

Listen

Documents

Statement of Licensing Policy (PDF, 95KB)