Licensing@aol.com
TEN for bar in council's hall
Q I have a colleague who holds a personal licence. He has been asked to run a bar for an event at a hall owned by the council which apparently has a premises licence. But they have asked him to obtain a temporary event notice (TEN) as well. What is the reason for this?
AThere could be two or three reasons. Firstly, it may be that the premises licence held by the council for this venue only covers regulated entertainment, not alcohol. Apparently, a number of councils have licensed their own premises and other locations to accommodate events, but decided against including alcohol on the licence for policy reasons. In such cases, where the hiring organisation wants a bar, a TEN is necessary.
The second reason could be that the hours which apply to the council's own licence are not the same as the hours requested by the hirer. In such circumstances, the TEN will be required to cover only the additional time, not the "core" hours on the council's own licence. As your colleague is entitled to up to 50 notices a year, this should not affect him too much, although it would be better to save the £21 if possible.
There is, of course, a third possible reason — that the officer who asked for this does not understand the licensing laws properly and thinks a TEN is required even when the premises are already licensed. Your colleague should make enquiries regarding all these points to make sure that he does need the additional notice to be lodged.
Bottled shandy for children
Q Recently I have been discussing the law with a licensee friend, who claimed that bottled shandy can be served to children, but pump shandy cannot. Please comment on this discrepancy and explain the difference.
A Although this rule may appear strange, your friend's claim is perfectly true and could apply to drinks other than shandy.
The bottled variety of such a drink is served by the licensee as a complete drink, the contents of which he or she does not control directly. The complete drink in the bottle contains less alcohol than the minimum laid down by law to constitute an "alcoholic drink". So it may be served as a soft drink for consumption by a person aged under 18.
In contrast, shandy made at the pump involves the licensee in the sale of beer - an alcoholic drink. The fact that alcohol is diluted to make the drink, so the finished product may have less than the minimum alcoholic content, is immaterial in the decision on the sale of liquor. He does sell beer to the customer, and if that customer is under 18 or it is bought for consumption by a young person, there is a technical breach of the law.
