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.

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.

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.

The Need and Procedure to Obtain a Premise License

Under the Licensing Act 2003 a single system of premises licences was introduced combining the six licensing commandments including the sale and supply of alcohol, the terms of legalized entertainment, the terms of late night refreshment. This act removed the non-essential red tape from the regulations that were followed before the act.

Why Premises License??

Businesses are now required to apply for a premises licence to be able to permit all the licensable activities they wish to perform in their premise. Premises licences are neither subjected to time period except for when it is requested, nor it requires renewal after every three years which was required according to the earlier rules and regulations nor they have a extent of one year which was there earlier in case for public entertainment licences.

The fee charges for a Premises Licence Application are same which used to be for application before the introduction of the Licensing Act and limitations on the number licensable activities on the premises has also been relieved. Inquiries on an application only happens where the demonstration from concerned group or responsible authorities is desired and hence eliminating pointless administrative and legal expenses.

The Application Procedure…

In order to practice any of the 4 licensable activities in a place, one must apply for premises licence to any of the licensing authority. To carry out retail sale of alcohol, a dedicated premises supervisor or DPS should be present in the premise that holds a personal licence.

The licensing directive has four major licensing objectives which are as follows:

• To prevent crime and disorder
• To ensure Public safety
• To prevent public annoyance
• To protect the children from harm

One has to perform a risk estimation to classify if one’s proposed use of the premises may challenge one or more of the licensing objectives. One must consider the actions required minimizing the recognized risks, and thus suitable conditions should be accepted. For instance, if the premises will be offering adult entertainment services, the owner may need to fulfill a condition that no children will be allowed on the premises where the adult entertainment is going to take place. And also if the premise is going to provide entertainment, the owner will have to reflect on how to minimize possible noise trouble. The projected measure should be documented in the appropriate section of the application form.

The Premises Licence Application form should also mention the type of premises that is intended, for example a hotel, a cafe, a community center, a pub, a night club, a supermarket, a convenience store, and should specify all activities that are to be performed at the premises as well. The form should indicate the non domestic rate able value of the activities, as this will be used to evaluate the fee payable for the application and also as the annual fee. It should also specify the opening hours, and any seasonal variations in the timings of the premises, each and every detail need to be set out.

Once a premise has obtained a premises licence it can be varied at any time by the similar process.

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.

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.