Most Scottish pubs still waiting for licences

At least 80 per cent of Scottish pubs are still wating for their new licences to be issued, according to trade estimates.

More than a week after the new Licensing Act came into force, the Scottish Licensed Trade Association (SLTA) estimates that only between 15 and 20 per cent of outlets have received the licences, which are issued by local authority licensing boards.

SLTA chief executive Paul Waterson condemned the delay, saying: "The stated aim of the Act was to streamline the licensing regime, and in that respect it's clearly been a miserable failure."

Under the new laws, both a premises licence and a personal licence are required. "Under the Act, licensees have to display the premises licence and have the premises licences about their person. At the moment, it's not possible to comply with the law," said Waterson.

Any business which had applied for a licence by the end of August is allowed to sell alcohol under temporary provisions but in place by the Scottish Justice Ministry to give local authorities time to deal with the backlog.

Waterson said: "At the moment, the 'softly softly' approach seems to be holding, but clearly it's a period of uncertainty for operarors They've been told by the lawyers the application has been lodged, but they've no idea how long it will take to arrive."

Meanwhile, Patrick Brown, chief executive of the Scottish Beer and Pub Association, estimates that at least 100 on-trade outlets across Scotland are shut because they failed to apply in time. "Those businesses were caught out, and they can expect to be in the same position for several more weeks."

Brown added that things "have been pretty quiet" in terms of enforcement of new rules on promotions.

"I've heard from one bar, in Aberdeen, where the licensee was told that he couldn't run a 'five bottles of beer for £8.95' promotion because of the price differential compared to the price of a single bottle."

However Waterson argued that the new law, which means that prices are unable to change twice within 72 hours, is being exploited by supermarkets. "The change was designed to tackle happy hours, but what we're seeing is that promotions now last 72 hours instead of one hour.

"The supermarkets have demonstrated that they prepared to push the rules to the limits, and the rest of us are being penalised because of their irresponsible approach."