ACS welcomes change to licensing Bill

Monday, 16 November 2009

Parliament confirmed the removal of discretionary local conditions for alcohol retailers as the Policing and Crime Bill completed its final stages on 13 November 2009.

If upheld, the local conditions could have been applied by licensing authorities to groups of local premises.

The Association of Convenience stores (ACS) argued this approach was fundamentally against the 2003 Licensing Act of judging premises on a case by case basis.

In place of the discretionary conditions is an amendment which allows licensing authorities to be an interested party in a licensing application or review.

However, they will only be permitted to make interventions on a premises by premises basis.

The Bill primarily includes nine mandatory conditions which apply to all alcohol licenses, the details of these conditions will be released early next year.

James Lowman (pictured), chief executive of ACS said: "We welcome the removal of the discretionary local conditions from the Policing and Crime Bill. This is something we have campaigned for; as we felt placing conditions on a group of premises went against the case by case approach of the licensing act.

"It is essential that any conditions placed on an individual licence are an effective response to specific problems linked to that premises - anything else is unjustified restriction on trade.

"We still have concerns regarding the new clause in the Bill, which makes licensing authorities interested parties in the Licensing Act.

This will mean that local authorities will act as objector as well as judge and jury, giving rise to significant questions about fairness. The government has much work to do to ensure that the process does not become unfairly balanced against licensees."

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