Every Premises Licence allowing the sale of alcohol in Scotland must include a designated premises supervisor with a valid personal licence who has responsibility for authorising sales.

If the designated premises supervisor no longer has a valid personal licence they will need to be replaced on the licence or sales will have to be suspended.

There is growing concern within the licensing industry that many personal licence holders are unaware of their training obligations and may risk their licences, and those of their employers, by failing to complete necessary refresher courses by 31 August 2014.

Background

In terms of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 Personal Licences last for a period of 10 years.  In order to obtain the personal licence in the first place the licence holder must have passed a recognised training course and been awarded a certificate for doing so.

For the licence to remain valid throughout the 10 year period the licence holder must complete a refresher training course within 5 years of the date of the issue of their licence and exhibit a certificate of having done so to the licensing board within 3 months thereafter.

The main consequence of failure to complete the refresher training and exhibit the certificate by the relevant deadlines is that the personal licence will be revoked and the licence holder will not be allowed to apply for a replacement for 5 years.  

NB. There is no right of appeal against the revocation of a personal licence for failure to complete the training.

Why is this becoming an issue now?

The current licensing regime under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 came into force on 1 September 2009.  The Scottish Government have advised that any personal licence issued prior to that date will be treated as having been granted on that date.

The vast majority of designated premises supervisors are likely to have obtained their personal licence on or before 1 September 2009.  The take up on the training courses is reported as having been minimal to date and the concern within the licensing industry is that there will be too many personal licence holders and too few spaces on courses to cope with a last minute surge in training.

Who will be affected?

The rules on refresher training apply to all personal licence holders.  Failure to refresh will therefore affect managers at any business with a Premises Licence, whether pubs, clubs, restaurants, hotels or any business where the sale of alcohol is ancillary to another activity.

Indirectly this could affect landlords because their tenants' licensed operations may have to be suspended while emergency applications are made to replace Designated Premises Supervisors.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.