Legal advice: New rules for noise

New rules being introduced in October will make it an offence for licensed premises to create excessive noise between the hours of 11pm and 7am - and pubs that fail to do so could face fines of between £500 and £5,000.

On June 28 the government published its proposals which are set to allow local authorities to impose instant fines on noisy pubs - and this includes noise from any outdoor area. These would give authorities power to deal with one-off incidents of excessive noise - adding an additional power to those already in place under the Licensing Act 2003 and the Antisocial Behaviour Act 2003 to tackle noise nuisance.

The Licensing Act already enables senior police officers to close licensed premises for up to 24 hours on the grounds of public nuisance. Any closure under Section 161 of the Act would lead to a review of the premises licence. And the Antisocial Behaviour Act already enables a local authority's chief executive to order the closure of licensed premises for up to 24 hours on the grounds of public nuisance.

Now the Noise Act 1996 is extended to cover "any premises in respect of which a premises licence or temporary event notice has effect". The guidance under the Act states that the powers are in addition to local authorities' powers under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 in relation to statutory nuisance.

Beer gardens and car parks

From the October 1, 2006, complaints from individuals can be investigated under the Noise Act. The relevant guidance states that a premises is not just defined as the area licensed under the Licensing Act but also includes any outdoor areas such as beer gardens, car parks, or other areas used, for instance, for the consumption of alcohol.

The first thing a landlord may know of the incident is when a warning notice is served on the premises. The notice must explain that the responsible person of the offending premises may be guilty of an offence if the noise exceeds the permitted level, measured from within the complainant's dwelling. The notice does not have to give the name and address of the complainant.

If the noise exceeds the permitted level during the period of the notice then the responsible person of the offending premises at the time that the noise is being emitted is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine of up to £5,000. If however a fixed-penalty notice is served, then criminal liability is discharged on payment of £500 within 14 days.

One-off incidents

The powers are, essentially, a means by which local authorities can enforce noise complaints for one-off incidents, rather than dealing with more long-standing noise problems.

They do not not supersede the authority's power to prosecute for breach of premises licence conditions, should a premises create excessive noise contrary to conditions on the licence. Prosecution for breach of conditions can lead to a maximum penalty of £20,000 and/or six months in prison. Alternatively, review proceedings can be brought which lead to additional conditions being added to the licence, or in extreme cases a premises licence being revoked.

Service of a warning notice under the Noise Act should be responded to immediately, given that the period may start as soon as 10 minutes from the issue of the notice. Considering there may be no warning that a notice is about to be served, managers of premises should be aware of the gravity of the situation, as it is the responsible person on-site who will be prosecuted under the Noise Act if the warning notice goes unheeded.

The powers only relate to the hours between 11pm and 7am and any warning notice issued will only have effect up to 7am of the period in which it was issued. There are no powers to extend this period and, subject to the notice being heeded to and the noise sufficiently reduced, then no offence will be deemed to have been committed. For most premises, this new power will only be used for incidents occurring during special events.

Landlords should retain sufficient control of one-off events at their premises to prevent a warning notice turning into a summary conviction.