Westminster seeks to amend Licensing Policy to introduce alcohol delivery policy

“Given the rise in food and drink delivery services, particularly as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, Westminster City Council is seeking to introduce new policies around delivery of alcohol as well as Late Night Refreshment.

Westminster will be consulting on amending its licensing policy given the increase in ancillary deliveries from existing premises, and growing number of applications for delivery centres where food and drink is delivered by either their own delivery personnel or via a third-party delivery service.

The Licensing Authority proposes to introduce three new policies, these are:

• Ancillary Delivery of Alcohol and/or Late-Night Refreshment Policy (DEL1) – Policy DEL1 will apply to venues such as restaurants and bars that want to offer deliveries in addition to their main activities. The presumption is to grant these applications subject to other policies.
• Shops Policy (SHP1) – Policy SHP1 will replace the existing Off sales of alcohol policy (OS1). The policy will apply to any premises whose primary function is the sale of goods or the offer of services. The policy is more comprehensive than OS1 as it covers all licensable activities that these premises may carry out.
• Delivery Centre Policy (DC1)- Policy DC1 will apply to venues where the primary function is the sale of alcohol and food via a delivery service. Applications will generally be granted if they are not in predominantly residential areas and subject to other policies.
  As a result of these proposed changes amendments will be made to the existing licensing policy including core hours to reflect the new premises uses, amending other premises uses policies to refers to ancillary delivery and removal of the existing off sale policy.

The consultation will run from Monday 14 June to Sunday 25 July 2021. The consultation documents will be published on Westminster’s website and we will send an eNews containing the consultation link on the 14 June should you wish to respond.

If you have any enquiries in the meantime contact Licensing Solicitor Suraj Desor at s.desor@popall.co.uk.