Importance of a Premises Licence

In order to perform the licensable activities in a premise, all the businesses are required to obtain a premises licence. Unlike earlier, premises licences are not related to time period exclusive of when it is requested, also it does requires renewal after a period of three years which was necessary according to the previous licence  regulations.  An extent of one year was there formerly for public entertainment licences, however there is nothing such under the Licensing Act 2003.

According to the Licensing Act 2003, a single system of premises licences was commenced uniting the six licensing directives including the terms of legalized entertainment, the sale and supply of alcohol and the terms of late night refreshment. This act overpasses all unnecessary red tape from the conventions that were being followed before this act.

Now the confines on the number of licensable activities are also relieved and the cost of

Premises Licence Application is the same as before. Investigation on a request for premises licence is only done where the exhibition is required from the relevant group or concerned authorities, thus removing useless legal and administrative costs.

Objectives of Premises Licence

The licensing commandments have four major licensing purposes to ensure safe sale and use of alcohol. The four directives are: For preventing crime and disorder, for making certain Public safety, for preventing public annoyance, and for protecting the children from harm caused by alcohol.

With the aim to perform any of the 4 licensable activities in a place, one can fill and submit an application for premises licence to any of the local licensing authority. In order to perform retail sale of alcohol, it is required to have a DPS also known as Dedicated Premises Supervisor in the premise that has a personal licence.

The Application for Premises Licence

Risk estimation has to be performed by the concerned authorities who are applying for the premises licence in order to ensure that it is not challenging one or more licensing objectives. All the actions are required to be considered so as to prevent all the acknowledged risks and appropriate conditions should be agreed upon. For a case in point, if the premises have to offer late night entertainment services then what can be done to minimize the noise produced, also if they are going to offer adult entertainment services, the owner may have to fulfill a condition that no children will be present in the premises at that time. All the measures should also be documented in the relevant section of the application of premises licence.

The type of premises such as a pub, a night club, a supermarket, a cafe, a community center, a convenience store, a hotel etc should be mentioned in the Premises Licence Application form. The application form should also enlist all the activities that the owners intend to perform in the premise. Opening hours, timing variations in different seasons and all other details are required to be set out. Once a premise has acquired a premises licence it can be altered at any time during its existence by the similar process.

Prerequisites of organizing regulated entertainment activities in a premise

For an organization engaged in regulated entertainment activities, which are performing dance, live or recorded music, indoor sports events, etc., it is a mandate to possess a licence. Also the activities like selling liquor, late night refreshments and indoor or outdoor wrestling also come under licensable activities.

For running any such organization like clubs, health service body, or charity, a premises licence is a must. All these activities should take place as per the regulations stated for a licence holder. To obtain such a licence, you will have to contact the licensing authorities of your region. You just have to make sure that you are above 18 years of age. The application procedure may consist of an application form to be filled by the applicant and submitted to the authority along with the required information and a predefined fee. These requirements depend upon the state specific laws. Also, the activities allowed and the time limit also varies from state to state.

The only reason behind enforcing the requirement of a premises licence is to avoid the occurrence of illegal and criminal activities that can occur during such gatherings. It has been commonly observed that the chances of the occurrence of such activities increase during social events and assembly of people at a large scale. Such happenings result in conflicts between the people present in the event and the outsiders too.

The licence holders should acquaint themselves with their responsibilities as being a license holder makes them answerable for any unlawful activities occurring at the premises. If a complaint is registered by the local police or a civilian, the licence holder may have to attend hearings in the local court. If a charge is proved against him, he may have to face a penalty for it and in the worst case, he may lose his licence.

Know-how on premises license

A licence is basically an arrangement that is useful alternative to sale and purchase deals. If one talks about sale, the seller transfers legal ownership of the sold product to the buyer. The deal is over at that point. As in regard to the licensing situation, the licensor is able to retain the ownership of the article and is able to retain or derive long lasting benefits. As per the benefits, he’s able to enjoy the continued revenue system, has the ability to provide maintenance and support services to the licensee. A license is basically a certification in which you are able to sell liquor within your premises.

Licensed premises are the one that has a license holder within the premises who is the supervisor under whose guidance the entire sale and purchase is done.  Apart from the main supervisor, there has to be a subordinate, who can take all the duties of the supervisor when he is absent, due to official or personal reasons. The premises that hold the license must make sure that they are aware of all the rules and regulation and must open their premises up till the time they have been granted for. They must not sell the liquor or any other alcoholic item to the children who are below the age of 18 or if they run a pub or disco, they are not to play music loud after certain particular time and no offense should take place in front of their premises either.

When you have made your mind that you are to open a premise that deals with liquor and other alcoholic item, you are to apply for the premises license before hand and take in account an organization on which you can rely on. This organization would help you attain the license and if you run licensed premises then you are for sure away from the lawsuits and other cases those generally arise in regard to alcoholic premises.

What does an APLH course consists of?

Authorized Personal License Holders course is the course which is required to be qualified by a person who wants to obtain a personal license for selling liquor. This course is very helpful and knowledgeable for a person who wants to get into the alcohol selling industry. After completing this course, one can easily apply for this license and become a legal seller and caterer of alcohol. As per the Licensing Law Act of 2003, any person who sells or caters alcohol must possess a valid alcohol license.

Not only because of the legal obligations involved, but also for knowing the responsibilities that you have when you are selling liquor, you should undergo the APLH course. The course material is selected to help the alcohol vendor know the rules and regulations associated with this business. Anyone can apply for this course but once thing that decides your eligibility is your age. You need to be 18 or above to apply for this course. If your age lies below this but you have decided to work in this filed, you can certainly go through the course material but you will not be issued any certificate and neither can you obtain a license at this age. This course will surely help your career prospects while working in the licensed retail sector.

The APLH course consists of the following segments:

• A preface to the licensing act 2003
• Authorities that provide the alcohol license
• Roles and responsibilities of a personal being a license holder
• Personal license, transfer and alterations in the license
• Activities that come under unauthorized licensing behaviors
• Antisocial conduct due to drugs
• Protection of children and women from such activities
• Legal powers and rights of access
• Activities that can be accepted temporarily
• Authorized identification and how to recognize fake ID cards
• How to apply for the license

On completion of the course, you will have to sit in a qualifying examination that will have multiple choice questions. If you successfully pass this examination, you will get a certificate stating that you have successfully completed the course. Then you become eligible for applying for the alcohol license. For that, you will need an approval from both local municipality and state level government of your state. Due to the legal involvements in the process, it takes a lot of time. A way to save your time is to look for a certifying institute that will help you in the application process. There are such institutes that will provide you the training course, certification and will also help you in the process of application.

While filling the application form, you have to be very attentive as a small mistake done while filling the form can result in the total license denial. In such case, you will have to go throw the whole process all over again. To know the fee involved in the process for Code Compliance Certificate, you can speak to your local council.

Premises and personal license must to sell alcohol

People, who want to become part of hospitality industry often put forward the question “how to apply for personal licence in order to sell alcohol?” however, they should know that as per the licensing act a person must obtain NCPLH qualification that is must these days.

One thing is that if you wish to attain licence to sell alcohol, then you must be aware that it incorporates two licenses:

• Personal licence
• Premises licence

In terms of alcohol licensing these two licenses are must and rest all the norms are completely abolished from the picture.

Applying for licence:

 

To attain licensing qualification

In order to attain a personal license it is must that you undertake a licensing law course and furthermore sit for the exam too. In most of the countries Award for Personal Licence Holders (APLH) Level 2 training course is taken. And in Scotland, you are required to take Scottish Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (SCPLH) Level 5 course. But, now both of these are replaced by National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) Level 2 training course.

Application procedure

As a person successfully completes the licensing law qualification, now a person could freely apply for personal licence in order to sell alcohol. The application is obtained from the local licensing authority which is the licensing department of the local council. While filing for the application the candidates are to prove that they have no relevant convictions. This method includes Criminal Records Bureau check and in most countries the local cops also carry out this checking.

The cops have full right to question on the personal licence application if they find any applicant at fault.

Applying for a Premises Licence

A premises licence is really important if you want to carry out any of the alcoholic activities in your premises. This license gives you the opportune to sell alcohol or the provision of regulated entertainment, to be carried out within the premises. Inclusive of the personal license application, a premises license application is also filed in the local licensing authority. If any changes are made to the existing premises then even those are to be detailed effectively. All the extensions must be detailed so that the investigation process completes on a peace note.

Following are the key part of the licence applications:

• Foremost, the fees
• The operation schedule in which the person filing for the application would detail as to how his operational hours be
• Detail plan out of the premises
• The written consent that the person is successfully designated as premises supervisor

Once you attain the licence to sell alcohol then it is must that you are to advertise your premises license application by either displaying a notice or by publishing a notice in local newspaper.

After this, the person who holds the personal licence plus the premises licence is given the liability to sell alcohol within the premises and is designated as DPS (Designated Premises Supervisor). In common language is known as premise manager. It is believed until and unless the nomination of DPS is not done, until then the licence application is not considered completed.

The Need of Alcohol Licensing

Personals, businesses and establishments who wish to sell or supply alcohol or alcohol related products within the country are required to have a licence or any other form of permission from a licensing authority which is most commonly a local council. The Home Office administers the commandments and policies directing this area. Basically a licence is provided to ensure that the licensable activities are conducted maintaining the standards and laws.

Licensable Activities explained…

Activities conducted in a premise that requires an Alcohol Licence are as follows:

• Retail Sale or supply of alcohol: It includes the sale of alcoholic products inside the premises or supply to a third vender.
• Regulated Entertainment: An activity that takes place in front of viewers whether in public or in a premise, with the aim of profit is termed as regulated entertainment. It may include sporting events, exhibition of a film, presentation of a play or live music, performing dance or playing recorded music, a boxing or wrestling even and any other form of entertainment.
• Late Night Refreshment: It relates to the activity of serving food and beverages for the public for consuming after 11pm and before 5am either on or off the premises.

The Different types of licence and licensee are…

An Alcohol Licence is an obligation for all individuals and organizations who intend to be in the retail sale of alcohol on a regular basis. Depending upon the type of organization and retail sale of alcohol, different licences are as follows:

• Premises Licence: The premises licence is to be obtained by all the businesses and firms that wish to sell alcohol within their premise, and also supply alcohol to other vendors on a permanent basis.
• Personal Licence: An individual who desire to sell or supply alcohol must have personal licence. He may also have the privilege to administer the sale of alcohol.
• Club Premise Certificate: If a club for instance a working men or rugby clubs desire to sell or supply alcoholic products then they require a club premises certificate.
• Temporary Event Notice: The selling and supplying of alcohol on an impermanent basis requires a temporary event notice (TEN). It is basically an application that the event organizer provides to the local council.

Cost of Licence…

NDRV also known as Non-Domestic Rateable Value affects the processing fee of a licence for the premises. In order to check licence fee for a premise, one can check for the rateable value at the Valuation Office Agency Website. Band A is allocated to the premises that do not have a rateable value. A supplementary fee is required to be paid by the owner for the events that may involve more than 5000 people. It is also required where the premises are entirely intended to sell alcohol.

Along with the application fee, an annual fee is also to be paid to the committee to wrap up the current expenses of administration and enforcement. It implies the cost of the authorities and the police personals which may stopover the premise at the time of the event.

All about a Premise Licence

Any agency that is engaged in regulated entertainment activities is supposed to possess a license for these activities. Regulated entertainment activities involve any kind of performances such as plays, movies, sports events, live music, dance, boxing or wrestling which are performed in the presence of audience to entertain them. Other licensable activities include selling and supplying liquor and other late night refreshments sold from 11pm to 5am.

The Licensing Act 2003 came into effect on 24 November 2005 with a new set of rules for licenses affecting all sites that were dealing in activities like sale of alcohol, late night refreshment and the provision of entertainment, music and dancing. These activities could be carried on under, and in accordance with, a permit called the premise licence. A premises license empowers the premises in question to carry out these activities. Almost any establishments that are involved in one or more licensable activity will need this license including takeaways and late night cafes.

The motive behind encircling these activities under licensed occupations is to prevent the unlawful actions that can occur during these activities. It is a well known fact that a person’s behavior changes drastically under the influence of alcohol. Also during late night parties and events, there are chances that such activities can occur that can also disturb those who are not taking part in the event. In some situations, these occurrences can become out of control and can cause harm to people especially children. So it becomes the responsibility of the government and local authorities to keep a check on such happenings.

Any individual, business or partnership can apply to obtain this license provided the person under whose name the license is required to be issued is aged 18 or over. Once a person obtains it, he will become an authorized dealer of liquor and late night food and beverages. There is no time limit on the validity of this license. So once you acquire this license, you can carry on your business with full authority to do so. There can be only three situations under which you will be deprived of the authority that the license renders after you obtain it which are:

• Either the license has been canceled by a government official due to improper use
• Or suspended due to the same reason
• Or you are told to surrender it

For obtaining the premise licence, you will need to supply certain information with the application form and fee. This information should specify the activities to be carried out using the license, the time of the day and number of hours for which these activities are to be carried out, the name and full address of the license holder, the address of the premises where the supply is going to take place, whether it is to be consumed at the place of supply or off premises or both and whether the license is required permanently or for a limited period of time. For becoming a licensed dealer, you can contact the local licensing authorities of the place where you reside and wish to have a license for.