Late-night levy: Lawyers provide new views on change of hours

The late-night levy allows a local authority to introduce a levy for pubs that have a licence to trade between midnight and 6am. Under the legislation, if a late-night levy comes into effect, licensees will be able to apply for a free variation to reduce their opening hours.

Last month, the Publican’s Morning Advertiser​ reported advice from lawyers that said that licensees who opt for a variation could add a condition to say that the change of hours will only be whilst a levy is in force.

However licensing lawyer Peter Coulson said: “I think that a pub would need to make a full variation if the levy is dropped, paying the full fee for it and advertising it in the usual way, in order to bring the hours back to the level they were before.”

Colin Manchester, consultant at law firm Woods Whur, added: “A variation should be regarded as permanent when made and subsist for as long as the licence exists, unless and until it is subsequently modified by another variation application.

“If a variation is regarded as permanent, this enables licensing authorities to undertake a contemporary consideration of promotion of the licensing objectives at the time any variation is made, which would not be possible if a temporary reduction in hours could be followed (automatically) by a later reversion to the original hours.

"It is thought that a variation being permanent more accurately reflects Parliament’s intention when making provision for variation of licences.”