Legal advice: Licensing's perfect TEN?

A new system for licence extensions to be introduced.

by Deborah McCallum of thePublican.com's legal team of experts from London solicitor Joelson Wilson.​

The Licensing Act 2003 will introduce a new system for obtaining extensions to licences. Special orders of exemption and occasional licences will be replaced by temporary event notices (TENs).

If you would like to obtain an extension to the hours specified on your premises licence once the act is in force, or permission to provide activities that are not authorised by your licence, you will need to serve a TEN on your licensing authority.

A TEN can operate for a maximum period of 96 hours and must be served 10 clear working days prior to the proposed event. The act prevents TENs from being served "back to back" for continuous periods of longer than 96 hours, as there must be a minimum break of 24 hours between TENs for the same premises.

The new notices allow any person giving notice to a licensing authority of a proposed event to authorise the sale of alcohol, the provision of regulated entertainment or the provision of late night refreshment, where these are not authorised by a premises licence. When serving a TEN, the applicant will have to notify the licensing authority and the police of:

• the licensable activities to take place during the event, for example, the sale of alcohol
• the period involved and the times when licensable activities will take place
• the maximum number of persons to be allowed on the premises at the same time (not exceeding 500 persons)
• where alcohol is to be sold, whether this is for consumption on or off the premises or both.

TENs are intended to be a flexible and easy way of obtaining extensions, in that the licensing authority does not grant permission to hold an event. A TEN is effective once it is correctly served, subject to any objection by the police.

The act contains a number of restrictions in relation to TENs, which will limit their use. For example, it will only be possible to validly serve 12 TENs in respect of a particular venue in each calendar year.

This restriction could prove problematic for venues that regularly obtain extensions for private parties, sporting events and so on.

There is also restriction on the number of people that can attend a temporary event. The act states that no more than 499 people can attend a temporary event at any one time.

In addition, personal licence holders can serve a maximum of 50 TENs per year, while individuals without a personal licence can only serve five per year. These restrictions mean that TENs will be of little benefit to some of you.

It appears that the only option available where more than 12 extensions a year are required, or where events will have more than 500 persons attending, will be to apply for a temporary variation of the premises licence, or to incorporate certain specified occasions of extended hours into an operating schedule. Applications for temporary variations of premises licences may well be costly in terms of both time and money.

It is anticipated that the secretary of state will relax opening hours across the board for occasions of international, national or local importance, such as the World Cup, Olympic Games and New Year's Eve.