Delegation rules set to continue
At least two years ago, with the old licensing system still in place, but the new Act already passed, I said it was unnecessary for the DPS to be on duty all the time a pub was open.
This was in response to a local licensing officer telling me they were going to put a fixed percentage of the opening hours into their policy for the attendance of the DPS. This seemed to me, apart from lacking in logic, to be completely unacceptable, for the following reasons.
Under the old law, the justices expected licensees "to exercise effective control and supervision of their premises", to quote from the Good Practice Guide. They also made it part of their policy that there should be at least one licensed person in day-to-day control of the premises.
This was to prevent an owner or operator obtaining a licence and then appointing a manager to run the pub who was not a licensed person. That, however, is very different from saying an existing resident licensee must always be on the premises when they are open for business.
It isn't practicable to have such a rigid rule in this regard. The maximum permitted hours in a week, under the old regime, together with drinking-up time, was in excess of 78. Now it is more. The host must attend to other matters sometimes.
The principle of delegation has been long established in the trade. That is why we had the words "servant or agent" in the Licensing Act 1964 to cover certain offences. The host retained overall responsibility for the premises and could be prosecuted even when he was not there when the offence occurred. He would not be convicted of certain offences if he could show he used "due diligence".
My view is this will continue under the new system. The DPS must ensure that, if he is away from the premises when the pub's open, he leaves a responsible person in charge. This may be a member of his own staff or even a relief manager.
Either of these actions seems perfectly acceptable, as long as the licensee is sure they know the law and how to run a pub.
