Minister urges those who missed deadline to apply immediatel

For those 6,000 licensees who have yet to apply, the message is clear do not hang around.

'The key is that anyone who missed the deadline has to get their application in ASAP as a new premises, licensing minister James Purnell told the MA. 'I want to make it clear that you can't leave it until 23 November to apply. That is the big difference. You need to have a licence in place by 24 November. If you don't, there is the danger the police will come knocking at your door and you will face prosecution.

Purnell held a meeting of the high level steering group on Monday morning and expressed his gratitude to those who have put the effort in to meet the deadline. 'By mid-May the situation was fairly worrying and even at the beginning of last month we had only about 20% in, but there has been a genuine late surge and I appreciate the hard work done by all, he said.

The minister again rejected criticism of how the Act had been implemented but said there would be an evaluation of the process.

He added the Department for Culture, Media and Sport would work closely with police and the Home Office to gauge the impact of the Act. 'We will be monitoring the impact on the economy and tourism as well as crime and disorder. We will start work on that now, but there are large social trends involved, so we wouldn't expect to see any immediate impact.