Government issues consultation on extending off sales easement and additional tens limits

The government is consulting on making permanent two important provisions that arose out of the pandemic.

The government is consulting on making permanent two important provisions that arose out of the pandemic.

The first relates to the regulatory easement allowing premises entitled to provide on-sales to also provide off-sales.

Currently, the Business and Planning Act provision is due to expire on the 30^th September 2023.

The consultation also mentions the option of, if a premises has a premise licence and a pavement licence,  extending the area covered by the pavement licence to be included within the licensed area of the premises licence. This is an intriguing prospect.

The second relates to the extended limits for Temporary Event Notices (TENs).

The Business and Planning Act temporarily increased the annual number of TENs that a premises is permitted from 15 to 20, and the number of aggregate days permitted per year from 21 to 26. This temporary easement is intended to expire on 31^st December 2023.

In both cases, the consultation is considering making these regulatory easements permanent.

The consultation, which was published today, consists of 14 questions and runs for a period of eight weeks until 11:59pm on the 1^st May 2023.

The full consultation document and impact assessment can be found here – Licensing Act 2003: regulatory easements – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

For further information or queries please feel free to contact any of our licensing solicitors.