Audrey Ferrie

First introduced by the Scottish government in 2009, a named Premises Manager must hold a personal licence in order to sell alcohol in any licensed premises. In Scotland this licence has to be renewed every 10 years, unlike in England and Wales where this same requirement was abolished in 2005.

An estimated 40,000 licences are due to expire on 31 August 2019, which may seem a long way off, but a two stage process means applicants first have to complete a training course prior to lodging their application by 31 May 2019.

Scotland’s 32 licensing boards, which are responsible for issuing personal licences, are under pressure with a myriad of other licensing obligations and targets. An additional burden is that all renewals have to be referred to the Home Office for immigration checks which establish that each applicant is permitted to work in the UK.

With the Scottish government yet to set a fee for licence renewals, there is great uncertainty and genuine concern that a systems back-log will result in thousands of applications missing the deadline, with the knock-on effect that many pubs, clubs and restaurants will be forced to close.

North Ayrshire Licensing Board Convenor, Councillor Ronnie McNicol, pulled no punches last week when he called on the Scottish government to follow England’s lead and to abolish the current system, or at least change the legislation to make it more workable.

“We have reached the tipping point – unless the Scottish government deals with this issue immediately, we will see pubs and other licensed premises across Scotland closing,” said Councillor McNicol. “Those worst affected are likely to be small businesses because it often happens that the business is both owned and managed by one person, so if he or she loses a Personal Licence there might not be an alternative person who can take over the management.”

He added, that despite repeated warning from licensing boards and professional organisations, the problems had not been addressed and it appeared certain that many applicants would lose their personal licence come August 2019.

Indeed, the view of many in the licensed trade and licence board members across Scotland is that personal licence renewal is another unnecessary layer of red tape which has been imposed without due regard to how the process can be efficiently implemented and which pays little attention to the views of those most impacted. It remains the case that licensing boards have the power to review licences and to suspend or revoke them, if an individual does not conduct themselves in accordance with the licensing objectives, or is found guilty of some offence which makes them unsuitable to hold a licence.

To avoid the potential closure of hundreds of premises next year, ideally the Scottish government should reconsider the need to renew licences every decade, but given Holyrood’s, some would say, single-minded stance on licensing matters, this is unlikely.

As is stands, licensing boards have no discretion to allow licence applications to be considered after the May 2019 deadline but it is not asking too much of Holyrood to consider an interim fix and to introduce legislation which could give the boards some leeway and so avoid an inevitable log-jam which will surely result in job losses, closures – some of which will be permanent – and a loss of amenity to many communities.

Some companies accept responsibility for organising their employees’ personal licences, while other operators leave it up to the individuals. It would be prudent for pub and restaurant operators to conduct an audit of current staff to establish who needs to go through this licence renewal process and to take speedy steps to ensure measures are in place for training to take place and to meet both deadlines.

Rather than hoping for a shift in attitude by the Scottish government, operators, and individuals who have personal licences, really need to start planning now if they are to avoid a deadline doomsday scenario which could mean last orders for many establishments.

Audrey Ferrie is a legal director at Pinsent Masons. This article first appeared in The Scotsman.