Late licences - the options for opening a little later than the norm

The Government is still committed to licensing reform - but until it becomes a reality, what are the options open to a licensee who wishes to stay open a little longer than the norm?

The one thing just about everybody agrees on is that the current laws restricting licensing hours are a bit of a nonsense. To be fair, not everyone thinks they should be extended - it's always possible to find the odd Welsh clergyman or concerned residents' association that would like to see pub hours far more restricted.

For the most part, though, anyone who has ever fancied a quiet drink after an evening at the cinema or theatre will have asked themselves how things got to this state.

Equally, any publican who has spent the first two hours of an evening staring across the bar at an empty pub only to find themselves having to usher paying customers out the door at 11 o'clock, will be only too aware of the farcical aspects of the present arrangements.

The UK has pubs in busy city centres which could profitably stay open for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. At the other end of the scale are pubs in quiet village or rural areas that do most of their trading over a few hours on a couple of evenings during the week.

Between those two extremes are tens of thousands of pubs each with their own unique circumstances. Surely it should be left to the pub operators, and where appropriate the communities they serve, to decide when those pubs should be open?

Piecemeal ​

Unfortunately, things are rarely that simple. As Your Business has discussed in the past, the licensing laws the trade has to work within are the result of centuries of piecemeal regulation by the powers-that-be, dating back to before the Norman Conquest. The current licensing regime was mainly framed by the 1964 Licensing Act, which brought together the various pieces of existing legislation. While the hours set by the 1964 Act have been varied slightly - notably the 1995 Act which introduced all-day opening on Sundays - the basic framework has remained the same for decades.

Standard pub opening hours, with the occasional regional and/or seasonal exception, are:

• Monday to Saturday 11am to 11pm
• Sunday (and Good Friday): 12 noon to 10.30pm
• Christmas Day: 12 noon to 3pm, 7pm to 10.30pm

There are certain provisions for obtaining a permanent extension to permitted hours. The most common are:

• Supper hours certificates - for licensed premises which serve sit-down meals, such as café-bars and pubs with restaurants, allowing them to open for one hour beyond normal hours.
• Extended hours certificates - for premises with a supper hours certificate which offer live music, enabling them to open for a further hour, excluding Sundays.
• Special hours certificates - for premises which offer food and music/dancing extending hours to 2am outside central London, and 3am within it.
• General orders of exemption - magistrates are allowed to permit a particular pub or group of pubs in the immediate vicinity of a place of work to open for extended hours to accommodate the needs of workers following a "legitimate trade.". Among the best-known of these are pubs near Smithfield and Billingsgate markets in London where market porters work through the night and finish their "days" work at breakfast time.

The future​

The Government is still committed to reforming licensing laws, although publicans will be only too aware that the timetable for reform is a lot less clear now than it seemed before the General Election. The official line is that lack of parliamentary time has delayed the introduction of a licensing reform bill.

The Government's proposals are for flexible opening hours, with the potential for up to 24-hour opening, seven days a week, subject to consideration of the impact on local residents. The police would have greater powers to deal with problem premises, allowing the majority of pubs where there are no problems to trade at hours to suit them.

The aim of the legislation is not to encourage every pub to "open all hours," although there are fears among some publicans that commercial pressure will mean longer opening hours. Some trade representatives have pointed to Sunday opening in shops, which has seen retailers such as Marks & Spencer and John Lewis, which initially resisted opening on Sunday when the law was relaxed, change their policy as a result of customer expectations. The trade does not generally want a situation where customers expect pubs to be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The survey of publicans carried out for the Publican's Market Report 2001 found that only one per cent of pubs would plan to open 24 hours a day if there was a total relaxation of licensing laws, while just three per cent would open 24 hours at weekends only.

The most popular option, cited by 39 per cent of pubs, was to extend opening to midnight on Friday and Saturday, while 14 per cent would open until midnight all week. Recognising that there may be evenings when customer demand justifies the cost of staying open, 27 per cent of publicans would have flexible hours, closing when the last customer leaves. Almost a third, 31 per cent, would prefer to stick to their current hours.

Extensions​

For most pubs, the basic way to extend opening hours is to apply for an extension, or special order of exemption to use the proper legal terminology. These are aimed at extending normal hours in order to allow a pub to meet the need of a particular event or series of events. While the detailed arrangements of applying are not covered by statute, it is best to follow the established procedures, which are based on guidance to justices' clerks and magistrates issued by their professional associations.

The basic principles are:

• give notice of your attention to apply in advance, in order to allow the police to consider the matter
• clearly set out details of your name and address as the licensee of the pub to which the application relates, the extended hours you are applying for, and the nature of the event
• include a letter from the person organising the event, asking you to make the facilities available. This could include details of admission - eg, by ticket or invitation - and expected numbers

What is a special occasion?​

Thanks to many thousands of applications for extensions, and magistrates' licensing decisions resulting from them, over many years, there is a fairly clear picture of what does or does not constitute a special occasion as far as an application for an extension is concerned. Legitimate special occasions may include:

• Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve and public holidays
• Significant birthdays and anniversaries - eg 21st birthday, silver wedding
• Weddings - but not always christenings
• Retirement parties
• Major sporting events in the area (not just a big match on TV)
• Major local events such as a town carnival or festival
• Friday and Saturday nights of Bank Holiday weekends are allowed in some areas

What is not counted as a special occasion?​

There is no doubt that some publicans have chanced their arms successfully over the years, but as general rule the following will not be counted as special occasions:

• Events organised primarily as a way of increasing trade
• Christmas shopping
• Regular market days
• Summer - although several seaside towns, including Hastings and Scarborough, have recently extended opening hours through the summer to accommodate the tourist trade.