Legal advice: There may be trouble ahead

By Graeme Keeler of thePublican.com's team of legal experts from London solicitors Joelson Wilson.​

Next week England and Wales will see the dawning of the Second Appointed Day on November 24. Goodbye licensing justices and hello councillors. Crystal ball time:

• Inevitably there will be some pubs and bars (and I suspect quite a lot of restaurants and late-night takeaways) that finally wake up to the fact that they needed to apply for a premises licence and will have to close or stop selling alcohol until they get one - if that is you, get advice quickly
• Some police officers will take a harsh line against licensed premises unable to display their premises licence or a summary of it even if they have not as yet received it - if this would include you, get a letter quickly from your local authority confirming that your licence is being prepared and have a copy of your conversion application handy
• It will become apparent that many premises licences contain errors so that, for example, allegations of breach of condition will arise because a licence wrongly sets out what has been granted - check your licence carefully now
• Many pubs will decide to apply for a variation to try and get the same or better trading terms than their competitors - have you found out yet what terminal hour has been obtained by the place down the road?
• A large number of existing holders of justices licences will realise that they have not yet obtained a personal licence - have you?
• There will be some pubs and bars which find that the person specified on their premises licence as the designated premises supervisor (DPS) has left - check now so that immediate application to vary the DPS is made before it is too late
• We can expect a crackdown by police forces and licensing authority officers on under-age sales, allowing drunkenness and breach of conditions, followed speedily by applications reviews of premises licences - have you got adequate measures in place to minimise this risk?