Management Services

If you sell alcohol to members of the public you can only do so where you hold a Personal Licence or a Personal Licence Holder has authorised the sale.

Prior to applying for a Personal Licence, you need to have obtained an approved qualification and we recommend the British Institute of Innkeepers (BII) accredited course – the BIIAB Level II Award for Personal Licence Holders (APLH) - formerly the National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH).

If you need a Personal Licence, contact our team who will be pleased to deal with you personally and provide the appropriate Licence Application pack or alternatively, complete our on-line Instruction Sheet.

“One Stop Shop” – John Gaunt & Partners were the first to offer a “one stop shop” where we deal with your training and legal requirements in an efficient and ‘hassle free’ manner. Attend one of our APLH courses and we will use that opportunity to complete the appropriate forms with you and deal with all the formalities to enable us to process your Personal Licence Application.

For further information regarding Personal Licences, please contact Laura Mateer.

If your premises sell alcohol, you need a Premises Licence and there must be a Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS) nominated on that Licence. A DPS must hold a Personal Licence.

If you are to be appointed as a DPS or if you are arranging a DPS change at one of your premises, you need to apply to vary the Premises Licence to show that appointment. The application should be made in advance of the change although it can be lodged to take immediate effect.

Although the DPS may not always be present at the premises, the DPS should be the person who is in effective day to day control and identified as in charge of trading.

If you need to lodge an application to vary the Premises Licence to change your DPS, please contact our team who will be delighted to take the appropriate instructions and deal with the necessary application. The new DPS must sign a consent form in support of the application. Alternatively, please complete our on-line instruction sheet and consent form.

For further information regarding Designated Premises Supervisors, please contact Julie Fitzroy or Charlotte Pinson

The Premises Licence must be held by a party (whether corporate, individual or a group of individuals) who carry on or intend to carry on a business which uses the premises for licensable activities.

If you are taking over premises, you need to apply for the transfer of the Premises Licence to you. If you are leaving a business having held the Licence, you need to ensure that that Licence is transferred away from you and your responsibility for operating the site has ceased.

Our team are experienced in dealing with Premises Licence Transfers and for this service please telephone or complete our on line instruction sheet.

At John Gaunt & Partners, we adopt a commercial approach and appreciate that in many cases, on taking the transfer of the business, you will also be varying the Licence to appoint a new Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS). We provide a combined service dealing with both applications with the appropriate cost saving to you. Please contact any member of our licensing team to discuss.

If your premises Licence Holder dies or becomes mentally incapacitated or insolvent, please contact us immediately for urgent advice on how to protect the licence. There is only seven days within which you must act.

For further information regarding Premises Licence Transfers, please contact Julie Fitzroy or Charlotte Pinson

Do you wish to extend your licensing hours or increase your licensing activities or operate without a restriction for a one-off event?

A Temporary Event Notice is the means by which you could extend your hours or activities or licence in an area which is not presently licensed (e.g. marquee in the beer garden or live bands in the car park).

There are certain criteria with which you must comply and there are strict notice periods for the Notice to be effected. There is a maximum number of Temporary Events permitted per site covering a maximum number of days.

If you require advice as to whether you are entitled to a Temporary Event Notice or whether it is an appropriate way forward, please contact our team who should be delighted to informally advise and subsequently, if required, deal with the necessary service of the Notices.

For further information regarding Temporary Event Notices, please contact Charlotte Pinson.

To operate an amusement with prizes machine at your premises, you need an appropriate type of Permit.

Following the inception of the new Gambling Act 2005, if applying for permission to place machines in your premises now, you will need to either serve a Licensed Premises Notification (LPN) permitting up to 2 machines at each site or a Licensed Premises Gaming Machine Permit (LPGMP) for 3 or more machines. If you take over premises with permissions in place, you will need either to re-serve an LPN (where the Premises Licence Holder has changed) or similarly transfer the existing LPGMP.

Your premises may have the benefit of a Permit issued under the Gambling Act 1968 which can have expiry dates up to August 2010. Prior to expiry or if there is a change of Licence Holder, it will be necessary to convert to the new style LPGMP or LPN.

Our team deal with many applications for Gaming Permissions and Permits and will be pleased to advise you as to your requirements and deal with any necessary application. We will automatically review with you your machine requirements on any Transfer of a premises licence John Gaunt & Partners are specialists in providing gambling advice.

For further information regarding Gaming Machines, please contact Charlotte Pinson.

John Gaunt & Partners provide a comprehensive licensing service in Scotland. Amongst those national operators who have retained us for Scotland is Whitbread, to deal with all their Scottish sites.

For comprehensive details of our Scottish Services please see the dedicated section here.

For multiple operators, John Gaunt & Partners provide an extranet service through which you can view all relevant details of your licensing estate. We provide a service which deals with all day-to-day licensing matters for the maintenance of your licensed premises.

This service includes maintaining databases, providing regular reports of changes within your Estate, maintenance of annual fee payments, dealing with address changes for individuals in terms of Personal Licences and Premises Licences, similarly processing changes of name and providing general advice as to queries in respect of the Premises Licences.

For further information regarding General Management Services, please contact Kate Redford.