Watchdog slates Scottish Licensing Act
An independent red tape watchdog has slated the Scottish Licensing Act for causing an unwelcome regulatory burden to pubs north of the border.
The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 was implemented in September 2009, but by April 2010 between a third and a half of premises licences in Scotland had still not been issued or were factually incorrect.
Recognising that there had been difficulties in implementing the new regime, a study by the Regulatory Review Group stated: "It is clear that parts of the Act are not operating as intended and this is causing necessary and unwelcome challenges both to licensing officers as well as all sectors selling alcohol."
The report recommended:
* Government should assess whether rateable value is the best way to calculate licence fees (fees were found to vary between £136 and £2,000)
* Councils should develop more transparent systems
* Licensing Boards should make sure they have enough well-trained staff to handle applications
* Forms should be standardised across Scotland
* New clear and simple guidance should be issued for the Act
* Licence variations should be standardised
Patrick Browne, chief executive of the Scottish Beer & Pub Association (SBPA), said: "This report clearly vindicates many of the concerns that the SBPA and other trade bodies have been expressing about the process of licensing reform in Scotland over the last three years.
"The report highlights many of the areas where the process of licensing reform in Scotland went severely off track and shows that the initial promise offered by licensing reform in Scotland was turned on its head by imposing massive and unanticipated costs on the industry.
"The challenge now is to learn from the mistakes that have been made, sort out those difficulties which are still on-going in a number of Licensing Board areas and to try and get Scotland's licensing system back on track."
