Licensing@aol.com
No report of accident Q One of my part-time bar staff who has worked at this pub for many years slipped on the cellar steps and has now been off work for five weeks. She blames the new shoes she was wearing. I keep seeing these adverts about claims. What should I do now? A To judge from your email, I have to assume you have done nothing so far except contact her. This is not acceptable. An accident at work which results in a person being incapacitated requires immediate notification under the Health & Safety at Work Act as soon after the incident as possible. Failure to report such a serious accident is a criminal offence. You should also notify your insurers as soon as possible, in case there is a claim. They will be able to advise you further. Although you say that the employee blamed her shoes, this is not necessarily the eventual finding which will be made. You cannot just let the matter rest and hope it will go away. The incident should have been recorded in an accident book and there are severe penalties for failing to comply with the regulations. You must deal with this issue as soon as possible now, although there may be consequences for failing to report it. Free event outside hours Q Is it true that we can allow a free promotional event to take place outside the hours on our licence even if alcohol is being served, provided by the company rather than us? No members of the public will be admitted. A This depends on the conditions of your licence. As long as you do not have any specific condition requiring you to close the premises during part of the day, then you may be in the clear for a private event of this kind, without any further action. The "licensable activity" is the sale by retail of alcohol. This means that if you supply the drinks, even if the event organiser settles up later, there will be a sale and therefore it must be covered by the terms of your licence. If the company is supplying their own product, then there will not be a sale, by you or anyone else at the time, and the event may go ahead. No other way round Q We have recently built a conservatory extension at the back of the pub which means that customers have to go through the bar to reach the toilets. Some of them have children and our licence still says that unaccompanied children cannot be in the bar. What do I do? A Fortunately the concession for this situation was carried forward into the new Licensing Act and is spelled out in section 145. Even if that condition remains, no offence will be committed if the unaccompanied child is in the bar solely for the purpose of passing through to another part of the pub and there is no other convenient route. Changes to the pub layout may require an application for a variation of the premises licence under the current rules, and it is always best to check with the licensing officer before embarking on any renovation or extension. You may already have done this. Planning permission itself is, however, not enough, even though it is the same council. You must ensure that changes to the plan which form part of the licence are recorded by the licensing authority.
