Partner as joint licensee

QThe police round here are refusing to accept a husband or wife as joint licensee. They say it must be a person who is unrelated. Is this right and can they insist on it? AIt isn't up to the police. Any decision on who may or may not be joined on the licence is for the justices. There is absolutely nothing in the Licensing Act which states that a husband and wife may not be joint licensees, and in fact many couples all over the country are both named on the licence. The only reason I can see for this policy is to do with responsibility for extended weekly hours. They might argue that an individual licensee cannot be expected to be present throughout the whole of the permitted hours, so responsibility should be shared. If the joint licensees are related, they may wish to take time off together, so someone different should be named on the licence. But they'd have to show good reason why the proposed licensees cannot delegate the running of the house in their absence ­ a practice which is very common. The justices aren't bound by the police view and may decide the couple are fit and proper to hold this licence together. Team bound by licensing law QA member of our darts team says if they hold a private function upstairs in my pub, because they are a club, the permitted hours don't apply, as long as it's only members. He says he has read this in a club law book. Is this true? ANo, it isn't. He may well have read something to this effect in a club law book, but he has misinterpreted the circumstances under which this concession operates. The truth, from your point of view, is that there may be no sale or supply of intoxicating liquor on your premises, which are licensed, except during the permitted hours, or during a lawful extension to those hours. The only exceptions are for residents, for the purposes of trade or to private friends of you as the licensee, and at your expense. The concession to which your customer is referring is for clubs and associations to use unlicensed premises on a particular occasion and to supply their own drinks at that venue, for distribution among themselves. No permitted hours will then apply, because it is considered a form of "private party" and the premises are not the permanent home of the club, for which registration or a licence would be required. Pub teams and "clubs in pubs" are bound by the licensing laws as they affect the licensed premises, and you as the licence-holder must abide by these more restrictive rules for all your customers.