Step forward for communities

In contrast to the minor variations procedure described last week, the Lords and Commons committees have given a smoother ride to another Department for Culture, Media & Sport measure aimed at helping village halls and community centres to allow alcohol sales at events.

The idea was to remove the need for such places to have a Designated Premises Supervisor specifically to look after such sales, as is required for all other premises licences (but not club premises certificates). The DCMS contended this would remove a considerable burden and help local community venues cater for the variety of events taking place there.

Of course, because this was a community-based idea, it was always going to have a smoother passage. It was in some parts opposed by certain sectors of the licensed trade, who saw it as unfair competition with local pubs. But as the old concept of occasional licences has now gone, to be replaced with the limited scope of occasional permissions (only 12 a year for one venue), there is less opportunity for the licensed trade to offer a regular service at a specific village hall.

What the debate seemed to centre on was the credentials of the hall management committees. There was even a suggestion that "undesirables" might get elected on to these committees, which would undermine the licensing objectives. This is what you might call "social Macarthyism" — seeing the enemy lurking even on village hall committees, prepared to corrupt the young and vulnerable. It really is political correctness gone completely mad!

This now seems to have subsided, but there remains a considerable amount of red tape for such venues to go through in order to gain the DPS exemption.

Only a proportion of village halls actually have a premises licence for alcohol; this is seen as a reflection of the difficulty of finding someone to undertake the DPS role and supervise all alcohol sales, especially because a variety of groups and organisations might want to have some drinks at an event.

A hall licence without a DPS means that the hall committee takes on the overall responsibility (rather like the situation in a club) and can fix the rental agreements to ensure that sales only take place in a responsible way. While the parliamentary committees were happy with the general idea, they were keen to ensure that the position would be reviewed by the DCMS to make sure that were no abuses of the new system.

Q&A​

Guilty after leaving?

Q. I know this may sound a silly question, but can you be charged with an offence after you have left a pub? In the old days the licensee's name often stayed on the licence. What is the current situation?

A. It is a serious point. Of course you can be charged with an offence, if it was committed while you were still responsible for the premises. There are many examples of lessees and managers finding themselves in court well after they have ceased involvement with the premises, because legal action takes time to bring to the authorities.

The real point of your question is whether you have a continuing responsibility after you have left. The situation is different now, because the person running the premises may not be the actual premises licence holder. But you cannot be charged with licensing offences committed when you are not running the pub. This would be entirely unreasonable.

There are times when there is a delay in issuing new documentation, either when there is a transfer of the premises licence to a new holder, or where there is a change of designated premises supervisor. It will be a question of fact as to who actually committed the offence or allowed it to happen. A licensee who has given up actual control cannot be charged if the offence is committed by someone else.

After-hours activity​

Q. There are suspicions that the new manager of a local pub is selling drinks well after time, which used to be illegal. What is the law on this now and can the police take action?

A. The relaxation of licensing hours has led to the situation that pubs have different "closing times". The first thing that you would need to check is whether these are really lock-ins in the old sense, or whether the sales hours for this pub have been extended — or even more likely, whether the new manager is taking advantage of the fact that

formal drinking-up time no longer exists.

Details of the licensed hours are contained in the licence summary, which must be posted up in the pub concerned. Failure to do this is an offence. So that should give you an indication of when the actual sales of alcohol should cease.

If sales are in fact being made after this time, then the police can indeed take action against the person running the premises. There is no longer a specific offence of selling after-hours, but there is a general offence of carrying on a licensable activity "other than under and in accordance with an authorisation", which carries a maximum fine of £20,000 or up to six months imprisonment.

Either the police or the licensing authority may take action. The alternative is for the police, after obtaining evidence of unauthorised selling, to request a review of the licence, which could result in the pub's hours being cut back.

Who can enter?​

Q. If a club with a premises certificate obtains a temporary event notice, who is allowed to come in? The club is saying that members of the public can be admitted on this occasion, but we say that this is against the law.

A. A temporary event notice is entirely different from the existing authorisation to sell or supply alcohol. It is not like a special order of exemption used to be. This means that it is not subject to the terms and conditions of the premises licence or certificate. Indeed, it can be applied to completely unlicensed premises.

It follows that a club that has a premises certificate can apply in the name of an official for a TEN to run an event to which members of the public may be admitted. The law will not be broken on this occasion.