Licensing Act 2003
Under the Licensing Act 2003, you will now need a Premises Licence to carry out the following activities previously covered by other regimes: Cinema, Community Premises, Late Night Refreshment, Public Entertainment and Theatres. To download an application form or to apply online go to our Licensing Act 2003 - Premises Application Forms page.
Statement of licensing policy
Following consultation on the Statement of Licensing Policy, the new policy was adopted by Full Council on 24 March 2016. The new Statement of Licensing Policy [PDF 1.30mb] comes into effect immediately. The Policy has been prepared by the Licensing Authority in accordance with the provisions of the Licensing Act 2003. The purpose of the statement is to promote the licensing objectives and set out a general approach to making licensing decisions.
The key changes are:
- Review of overall structure and layout, remove out of date and no longer relevant information to reflect changes in legislation
- Include Executive Summary
- New section 2 “Public Health and Alcohol”, Public Health section, incorporating latest Public Health thinking and perspective, include Alcohol Programme Board
- Proposed new section titled ‘Special Policies and Initiatives’ (section 3) to include BHCC policies CIZ, SSA, Matrix, TENs, Off licences/sensible on strength scheme, student and organised beer crawls, night-time economy safeguarding initiatives
- Matrix review (section 3.3) add Café/bars category to table, removal residential/mixed areas from table, include other areas category with rationale in note 7 of matrix notes (referring to Public Health framework document for alcohol decisions), restaurant in SSA – change from 2am to 1am, pub - change times from 11pm to No in CIZ category, remove HVVD (super pub) category and Members Clubs – add 11pm for CIA and SSA
- Include definition of restaurant condition in notes (paragraph 3.4)
- Updated Police section 4.2.
Mandatory conditions
A new mandatory condition for licensing came into effect on 28th May 2014. The council will not be sending out new licences to everyone but will amend them to take this new condition into account when we get variations, change of addresses, etc.
The new condition is available through this link - Additional Mandatory Condition (PDF 15KB)
Licensing enforcement policy
This link will enable you to view the policy - Licensing Enforcement Policy booklet (PDF 119KB)
The policy was agreed by Licensing Committee on 25 June 2009.
The policy is predicated upon the Council corporate enforcement policy (agreed by Cabinet) to provide compliance with recent government guidance:
- The Compliance Code
- Cabinet Office Enforcement Concordat
- Regulation of Investigatory Powers, Police & Criminal Evidence, Criminal Proceedings and Investigations provisions
- Freedom of information, Human Rights and Data Protection provisions
- The Code for Crown Prosecutors
- Home Office Guidance on the use of Simple Cautions
- Other relevant legislation such as regulatory and equalities provisions and relevant guidance or professional advice.
Mainly it should ensure enforcement action is transparent, targeted, consistent, proportionate and fair.