In with the New Year

New Year opening hours have again been left too late

by Richard Williams of thePublican.com's legal team from London solicitors Joelson Wilson.​

Many of you will remember that for Millennium Eve, the government passed one-off legislation to extend permitted hours on December 31 1999 for a maximum period of 36 hours.

Although the trial was successful, the arrangements were limited to the Millennium and were not extended to subsequent New Year's Eves.

Last year, as a further trial and on a one-off basis, the Regulatory Reform (Special Occasions Licensing) Order 2001 was introduced, which replicated the arrangements in place during the Millennium, for New Year's Eve 2001.

Again, this allowed licensed premises to open for a continuous period of 36 hours between December 31 2001 and New Year's Day 2002.

Although this legislation was again successful, it did not affect future New Year's Eves and it did not automatically extend public entertainment licences (PELs).

This incomplete legislation caused everyone in the trade problems last year. Although the government extended liquor licensing hours, PEL hours were not extended accordingly and it was necessary to apply for variation to hours of PELs on a one-off basis.

This was a shockingly time-consuming task and local councils charged unbelievably high fees for entertainment licence variations, which often only operated for a couple of hours.

This New Year's Eve, it appeared to be different. In April 2002 the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) issued a consultation paper making the following proposals:

• up to 36 hours continuous opening of licensed premises between New Year's Eve and New Year's Day every year
• all PELs to be varied automatically in line with permitted alcohol licensing hours
• arrangements for orders restricting licensing hours on those days to be changed.

As the consultation paper was issued in April 2002, the government should have been able to pass the necessary legislation in good time this year. Alas, this is not the case and my office has been telephoning the licensing department at the DCMS on a weekly basis, to ask when the legislation is likely to become law.

Clearly, unless a decision is made soon and the legislation is passed, licensing advisors and publicans will have to consider submitting one-off applications to extend licensing hours this New Year's Eve by way of special orders of exemption (SOE).

SOEs automatically extend entertainment licensing hours but previous legislation automatically extending hours on New Year's Eve prevented applications for SOEs being submitted.

My most recent enquiry to the licensing department at the DCMS indicated that the legislation is now not likely to be passed until the first week of December so we will all be left in the dark until that date.

There is no guarantee that the legislation will be enacted prior to New Year's Eve. Accordingly, we will be advising clients that applications be made for SOEs for New Year's Eve, in order to avoid uncertainty.

Please bear in mind that any automatic extension will only cover New Year's Eve this year and that there will be no automatic extensions for Christmas. Christmas Eve this year falls on a Tuesday and you may wish to apply for an SOE to extend your licensing hours on Christmas Eve and other days around the Christmas period.

However, you will have to satisfy local magistrates on each occasion that the day in question is "special".

It is likely that local courts and licensing committees will have produced their own policies to deal with Christmas extensions, and it may be worthwhile telephoning your court to ask whether the policy has been agreed for your area.

If you are eager to know when the relevant legislation for this New Year's Eve is likely to be passed the licensing department at the DCMS has a mailing list which you can join so that the information reaches you as soon as possible.