BII makes personal licence test easier

Compulsory questions are being abolished from a popular BII exam for licensees in England and Wales.

Currently, candidates for the BII's Level 2 National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) must answer all five questions in Part One correctly to pass.

But from 10 March, the NCPLH will mirror the BIIAB Scottish Certificate for

Personal Licence Holder.

This has 40 questions, none of which are compulsory, and 28 must be answered

correctly to pass.

Personal licence exams from rival awarding body the Confederation of Professional Licensees do not have compulsory questions and were still cleared by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

Last year the number of compulsory questions on the NCPLH was reduce from eight to five.

The BII said every exam paper on the will always include questions on the following subject areas:

•The licensing objectives•Duty to declare relevant criminal offences when applying for a personal licence•Duty to produce a personal licence when asked by an authority figure•Which authorities have the right to enter licensed premises and under what circumstances, and their powers to enter premises•The law on sale of alcohol to and consumption of alcohol by children•Duty to refuse service to people who are drunk

The BII has also revealed that in 2007, 89% of NCPLH candidates passed parts one and two.

In addition, 7% failed part one and passed part two, while 2% passed part one and failed part two.

The exams will also be available in Turkish, Polish, Chinese and Welsh while an interpreting service will be made available for other languages.

New qualifications being introduced for 2008 include Cooking Skills and Award for Music Promoters.