The Government respond to the post-legislative scrutiny of the Licensing Act 2003

Today the Government has published the long-awaited follow-up response to the House of Lords Liaison Committee publication ‘The Licensing Act 2003: post-legislative scrutiny’.

The initial report by the House of Lords was published back in April 2017 and provided over 70 recommendations to the Government which are summarised here.

Following this, in November 2017 the Government issued their response to the report, which resulted in little legislative change and a few changes to the Statutory Guidance.

Earlier this year, the House of Lords Liaison Committee’s produced a follow-up report to the responses commenting on the progress and recommending 25 additional changes.

Now, the Government has issued their follow-up response.

Highlights include:

• The Government acknowledge the need for coordination between Planning and Licensing but reiterate their stance that the systems are different with distinct objectives and approaches;
• The proposed inclusion of the Agent of Change principle within section 182 Guidance;
• A refusal to set a mandatory minimum training standard for licensing committees as recommended by the Liaison Committee, on the basis that there are excellent existing training packages available;
• To consult on the level of Late-Night Levy to be applied to late night refreshment premises, but not to formally consult on the impact of the current Late-Night Levy;
• To consider the findings from the Scottish minimum unit pricing evaluation in due course;
• The Government are not proposing to revisit the decision made not to extend licensing to airside.

A copy of the report can be found here.

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