Tuesday 4 September 2012

How to apply for a personal alcohol license


For pursuing a career in catering and hospitality, it is important to have a personal license for the supply of alcohol. It will help in attaining a lot of knowledge about how processes take place in alcohol supplying and what can be done in times of crisis. It is a very simple process to get a personal alcohol license. A person willing to get one has to go through one-day training before he appears for the test. You have to approach the nearest institute that provides his training and take admission in the course of your choice as there are a number of courses available. The syllabus prepared for this training is understandable and if you want to do it on your own, you can choose to take the training offline.

After the training is complete, the person is required to sit in a qualifying examination that will contain 40 questions. Out of the 40 questions, the person is required to give correct answers for 28 of them. If he succeeds, he will pass the examination and will be issued a certificate for the training. Now to make a premises licence application, one has to contact a licensing authority. He must be over the age of 18 years, should hold a licensing certificate, must not be involved in a foreign offence and must not have lost such a license in the past 5 years. Anyone fulfilling these conditions will be eligible to apply for a personal license.

The applicant must have gone through an APLH course and possess a certificate stating the same. There are many institutes that provide the training for these courses both online and offline that can be contacted from any part of the world. The next step is to get a criminal record check done from the local court. If the person has a clean background history, he will be issued a document stating that he is eligible for the license. If there is any offence found in the criminal record of the person, then the nature of the offence is checked to be strong enough to jeopardize the application.

After all these checks are done and a certificate achieved, the applicant has to reach the licensing authority to ask for the application form. The application form is required to be filled by the candidate very cautiously because any small mistake can ruin his efforts and he may have to apply for it again. The person should place his latest photograph in the region mentioned for it. This photo must be clear enough as it is going to be placed on the identity card that will be issued to the license holder. After completing all these formalities, the person has to submit the application form along with the training certificate and the document from court proving his eligibility for attaining the license.

If the premises licence application is found to be complete, the person will be issued a license that will consist of two parts - one certificate and the other a credit card sized identity proof which is to be always kept with him.

Saturday 1 September 2012

Requirement of licenses and permissions when opening a food outlet


The catering and hospitality industry is an ever blooming business. Many such businesses have seen to grow from a small eatery shop to a five star resort. If you are also thinking of opening a food outlet, there are a number of things to be dealt with initially. The first thing that you have to do is to get registered with the environmental health service department of your local authority. The registration is free of cost and you have to register at least 28 days before opening the food outlet. Some people are running a catering business from their home while others are using a restaurant franchise or a temporarily hired premise. Some businesses are also being operated by using mobile catering vans or market stalls.

Whatever kind of a business may it be, it has to be registered with the environmental health service department. In case when the premise is hired and being used by more than one catering businesses, such as conference centers or community halls, it becomes the responsibility of the owner of the building to get each one of them registered. Looking at the necessity of the processes like registration and acquiring various licenses like alcohol premises licence, there has been made a provision for getting these done online with many local authorities.

However, if this provision is not available in your local authority, you can get it done by post, fax or email. You can download the application form anytime through internet. Another thing that you need to get yourself registered for is being self- employed. You will also have to think about getting registered for value added tax and you will probably have to pay business rates. This is the case when you are using the premises as assigned to you. But if you want to make changes to it, you will also require the permission of the local authority. There are some legal requirements to be met when you change the design and construction of your assigned premises. There should be proper arrangements regarding the health and safety of people like fire regulations.

All the food and drinks that you are going to sell must describe their contents precisely and rightfully. Before starting to sell alcohol in your food outlet, you have to obtain an alcohol premises licence from the licensing authority. Such a license will make you legally authorized to sell alcohol in your premises and areas where the license is applicable. There is a particular time interval during which one can operate his food outlet. If you want to extend this time interval, you will require an additional permission.

Not only the owner but the whole staff of the food outlet must be well aware of the principles of good food hygiene. It is your social responsibility to check the quality of food being served to prevent the chances of food poisoning. As an owner, you must also keep the record of the pay of your employees and ensure that the correct tax is being paid. Waste management and recycling measures are also required to be taken to ensure strict adherence to the rules of your council.