LICENSING ACT 2003 – 6 MONTHS ON

June 2006

The Licensing Act 2003 introduced wholesale changes to the liquor and entertainment licensing regime operating throughout England and Wales. It came into force on 24 th November 2005, some six months ago.

In the lead-up to the new regime coming into force, and for a short time afterwards, the issue of licensing and its associated social, economic and legal implications became a popular topic in the mass media. Many stories were published with alarmist headlines suggesting that a new and possibly dangerous 24-hour drinking culture was about to be created.

So, after six months of life under the new licensing regime what has changed and have some of the media’s worst predictions come true?

The principal effects of the changes were to transfer responsibility for licensing to the Local Authorities (from what substantially had been the Magistrates Courts), introduce the concept of dual licensing with premises and individuals being separately licensed, do away with fixed permitted hours for licensable activities and thereby introduce a degree of greater flexibility into such hours and finally to give a degree of greater local accountability.

The implementation of the Licensing Act, with its transitional provisions, has been independently and roundly condemned both by a committee set up within the office of the Deputy Prime Minister and by a committee of MPs.

Most certainly that implementation and the effects of it adversely affected all those involved in the process, whether it be operators of licensed premises, professionals engaged in the process, or the Local Authorities which had to deal with the significant volume of paper and the ultimate production of the licence documents themselves in what proved to be an inadequate time frame.

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