Licensing@aol.com
Notifying personal changes
QI have just received both my paper and card personal licence from the council. They both state the name of the pub I was in, but I have now left this pub and am looking around for a new vacancy. Can I take it that when I start in a new job I would not need to seek a licence, as this one is stated to last for 10 years?
AThis has caused confusion to several people new to the trade. The personal licence has nothing to do with the pub you have been in, except that it was probably your residential address at the time of application.
It follows that it may well be stated on your licence for that purpose. But it does not bind the personal licence to that particular pub, as the old-style justices' licence used to do.
What you must do, however, is to notify the issuing authority of your new address, each time you move within the next 10 years. This is a legal requirement and failure to do so actually constitutes an offence, with a possible fine of up to £500.
Unfortunately, in any event you have to pay £10.50 for notifying the change and you are required to send both parts of your licence back to the issuing council for amendment, or an explanation of why you cannot do so. They will then issue you with a revised paper and card licence with an amended address. You do not send it to the council for the area where you are now living or working.
This change in details will not affect the duration of the licence, which will continue in force for a full 10 years from the date of grant. You will then be required to renew it, for £37, or whatever fee is by then charged.
Children in off-sale
s
QDoes the new under-16 rule about unaccompanied children apply to youngsters using our off-sales area, where they often come in for soft drinks, snacks and sweets?
ANo, it does not. The under-16 rule is specifically aimed at bars, although the word is not used in the Act. It merely says that it applies to premises "exclusively or primarily used for supply of alcohol for consumption on the premises."
Space does not permit a full discussion on what "premises" in this context means, but it clearly cannot mean the whole of the premises, whether alcohol is supplied for consumption or not. It means the bars. An off-sale department is not used for consumption: it is distinct and separate from the bar, and unaccompanied children may, therefore, be allowed entry, at the behest
of the licensee.
According to the Act, it would be permissible for an unaccompanied child under 16 to walk through the bar to the off-sales section if there was no other convenient route. But usually these traditional departments have their own street entrance.
However, a word of warning. The law on selling alcohol to such minors is strict and certainly strictly enforced. If you do have youngsters in during the day, you would be wise to have stringent precautions in place.
