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Scotland - Less than 3 months to go to Christmas!

Although we are barely into October, the time has come to once again to think ahead to Christmas, be it booking our holidays, buying presents or, more importantly, arranging extensions for increased trading over the festive season!

In Scotland, most Licensing Boards will issue their festive policies and identify those dates for which premises can extend their hours. Most premises will then be able to automatically take the benefit of these hours as long as there is a relevant authorisation on their Premises Licence stating they can extend trading hours in line with the Licensing Board's policy.

Glasgow Licensing Board has now issued its Festive Policy and will allow premises to extend their hours between Friday 10th December and Sunday 2nd January 2011 inclusive.

For those premises within the city centre, they will gain one additional hour for all those above dates. For those outside the city centre they will get an automatic one hour extension on Fridays, Saturdays, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Hogmanay and New Year's Day.

However, whether a premises is within the city centre depends on Glasgow Licensing Board's definition of the same. This can be found within their own policy.

Should you wish to obtain extended trading hours over the Christmas period and are unsure whether you have the benefit of automatic extensions or need to make an extended hours application, please feel free to telephone us and speak to one of our Solicitors.

And yes - we do appreciate that there is less than 3 months to go to Christmas in England and Wales as well - but where different licensing considerations apply and where you may well want to consider Temporary Event Notices where appropriate.