Today, 31 July 2025, the Licensing Taskforce, made up of representatives from government, industry, police, and local government, has issued its Licensing policy sprint: joint industry and HM government taskforce report.
The joint industry and HM government licensing policy sprint taskforce was established on 9 April 2025 and ran until 16 May 2025. The taskforce was co-chaired by Nick Mackenzie, CEO of Greene King, and Gareth Thomas MP, Minister for Services, Small Business and Exports.
Businesses had indicated that aspects of the current licensing system under the Licensing Act 2003 lack proportionality, consistency, and transparency, thus creating barriers to growth and investment for business.
The core questions given to the taskforce at the outset were:
- What are the current issues relating to how the licensing system is operating and how, if at all, have these changed over the last few years?
- Have other policy changes, such as planning, impacted licensing decisions?
- Given business has reported a lack of proportionality, consistency, and transparency, how we can improve the current licensing system under both Licensing Act 2003 and through other legislation, to remove the barriers to growth and investment for business?
- Are there changes in the way government issues guidance to local authorities to steer their decisions regarding licensing that could support industry, for instance in a similar way to the planning system?
- How do we ensure any proposed changes to the licensing regime do not undermine the licensing objectives to prevent crime and disorder and reflect the views of local authorities and the police as well as the needs of business?
The Taskforce’s Report for consideration by HM Government contains ten Priority recommendations, together with many others.
The ten priority recommendations are:
- Recommendation 1: The introduction of a National Licensing Policy Framework. Section 4 of the report sets out areas that would form the content of such a framework. These include reviewing the cut-off time for the deregulation of live and recorded music, maintaining the GOV.UK online licensing portal, ensuring that duplication of legislative regimes is really avoided in licensing, giving powers to licensing officers to make recommendations which ‘carry the highest weight’, extending the 28-day period for reinstating a lapsed licence and several more.
- Recommendation 2: A one-time (twentieth anniversary) licensing condition ‘amnesty’ to modernise and streamline licences
- Recommendation 3: Hearings and appeals – various recommendations, including a strengthening of the objections procedure to prevent unnecessary and unsubstantiated objections
- Recommendation 4: Remove the hard-copy local newspaper advertising requirement
- Recommendation 5: Improve the potential for licensed premises to better use their outside spaces by removing regulatory barriers, improving licensing decisions, simplifying processes, and achieving greater consistency
- Recommendation 6: Increase the maximum entitlement for Temporary Event Notices (TENs) for licensed premises (that is those with existing premises licences) to help generate new opportunities for existing businesses. Premises can currently apply for a maximum of 15 TENs in one year, for a total period of 21 days. The recommendation suggests increasing the automatic entitlement to ideally 25 TENs covering 30 days, but as a minimum, the same level as during COVID that is 21 TENs, for a total period of 26 days per year
- Recommendation 7: ‘Sunset clause’ on blanket hours policies to avoid situations where a restrictive policy is put in place to deal with a specific issue, but the policy in effect runs forever or is continually renewed using the original out of date evidence base
- Recommendation 8: An arbitration, evidence, and data protocol for licensing decisions. Section 5 of the report outlines the core features to be included in the protocol
- Recommendation 9: Festivals and events – amendments to the fees required and duration of licences
- Recommendation 10: Make the agent of change principle a factor that must be considered when making licensing decisions (similarly to the way it is considered by planning authorities when making planning decisions)
There are other ‘secondary’ recommendations which aim to reduce the burden on the hospitality sector and improve profitability and these are set out under Section 6 of the report.
There is no apparent timescale for the Government’s response but the overall thrust of these recommendations must be seen as a very positive development in the world of licensing.
The report can be seen here: Licensing policy sprint: joint industry and HM government taskforce report – GOV.UK
Further detail and comment to follow.
For further information on this or any other licensing issues, please contact licensing solicitor, Andy Grimsey on a.grimsey@popall.co.uk or call 0115 953 8500.
