Entertainment & liquor licensing

News: “Minor” Variations Procedure

  • Date: 28/11/2007
  • Author/Solicitor: Jeremy Allen

I mean no particular criticism of DCMS or the Government in saying that fairly obvious changes to procedure seem to take an awful long time to bring about. Minor variations, small changes to the plans, are treated differently all over the country. There is a technical argument that if you show something eg a bar that doesn't interfere with a fire exit upon a plan, then you need to make an application if its position is changed. Ironically, a bar isn't generally required to be shown upon the plan under the Regulations. This is strange because a fire extinguisher or a change in floor levels is. There is an argument that if it's shown upon a plan in the first place, if you move it then you should make an application for variation even though it isn't specified in the Regulations.

Some councils have been operating an informal minor variation procedure. Under this you simply serve the local authority who consult with whomever they feel is appropriate and, if there's no major argument, approve the plans. Other authorities say that there's no legally defined procedure for this, which is true, and insist upon a full variation application being made which can cost quite a lot of money. In addition to legal fees and preparing plans to be served on 8 different authorities, there is the ubiquitous advertisement fee which has to be paid to the local newspaper. Nobody in their right mind is interested in minor modifications or will bother to object to them so the advertisement is a complete waste of money. In fact, pausing briefly, it's interesting how newspaper advertisements crept in to most procedures when frankly a letter to nearby residents would have sufficed. The need for newspapers to be on the side of politicians with a general election coming up I'm sure had nothing to do with it!

DCMS have now decided to amend the procedure. They are therefore consulting on a minor variation procedure and the deadline for responses is 20 February 2008. Not bad for something that was highlighted by them as an issue in the simplification plan published in December 2006!

Having said that, they can then use the Legislative Reform Order process which could simply amend the Licensing Act following parliamentary consideration.

Essentially, the new procedure would allow applicants to make small alterations to their licensing certificates for a fee without having to advertise the variation or copy it to all Responsible Authorities. The Government estimates that these measures would result in cost savings of between £1.5 and £2.8million per annum. It's worth clicking onto the DCMS website to respond. The website's catchy title can be seen here .

I suggest you spend a few minutes telling them how important this particular legislative change is.

For further information please contact Jeremy Allen