Entertainment & liquor licensing

News: Evaluation of the Impact of the Licensing Act 2003

  • Date: 05/03/2008
  • Author/Solicitor: Nick Arron

Following on from yesterday's eNews on the government's evaluation of the impact of the Licensing Act 2003, the full document has now been published and we can report in greater detail.

The conclusions drawn in the evaluation are based on reports on the extent to which the aims and objectives of the Act have been met. The reports considered were both governmental and independent and considered various aspects of the Act.

The report reveals a mixed picture with aspects of the Act working well but with some powers not being utilised to their full extent.

Positively, the Act has not led to the widespread problems some, such as the Daily Mail, had feared, with the new licensing system functioning smoothly and delivering a number of positive outcomes.

The government's main conclusion is that operators and customers are benefiting but people are not sufficiently using the considerable powers of the Act, such as reviews, to tackle the problems. Thus there is a need to focus on enforcement and crack down on irresponsible behaviour.

In brief:-

• Overall crime and alcohol consumption have not risen but alcohol related violence has increased in the early hours of the morning between 3am and 6am.

• There is no evidence of 24 hour drinking, with only a minority of premises securing 24 hour licences and very few actually utilising those hours. There have been only limited changes to actual opening hours.

• Despite concerns, there has been no serious adverse impact on the provision of live music.

• The licensing system is more democratically accountable, with the involvement of local authorities, and the powers given to residents allowing them greater influence on licensing decisions.

• There is a much better partnership working between local authorities, the police and other responsible authorities and licensees.

The government suggests the Licensing Act could be used more effectively in some areas, particularly in respect of tackling alcohol related problems, where a better understanding is necessary and greater use of existing powers, such as tougher conditions and reviews. The government considers reviews to be a strength of the new system but concludes the number of reviews are disproportionately low compared with the number of test purchase failures. Further guidance, to all parties in the process, is suggested.

Conversely, the government identifies the need to make the licensing regime more flexible where there are no threats to the licensing objectives and look at ways of adjusting the regime to remove unnecessary red tape. The government is suggesting that this would leave resources better able to focus on higher risk premises and reduce paperwork for applicants.

In the report the government confirmed a number of immediate actions. These are:-

• To make it easier to review premises where local intelligence suggests there is a problem.

• To encourage the imposition of tougher sanctions on those found to be breaching their licensing conditions.

• Significantly, changing the offence of persistently selling alcohol to a person under 18 from three strikes to two strikes in three months.

• To support the police and local authorities to identify problem hot spots by ranking geographical areas and concentrations of premises on the basis of the risk they present to crime and disorder, public nuisance and children.

• To introduce a new red card and yellow card alert system. A yellow card will put a problem premises on immediate probation together with tough and uncompromising sanctions and a red card will lead to the withdrawal of the licence.

Click here to view the full report

For further information, please contact Nick Arron