Home Offices rules out World Cup licensing hours extension
England play Italy at 23:00 BST on Saturday 14 June 2014 in their opening group game and the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) had asked for serving times to be extended.
An application on behalf of all pubs was submitted to allow them to stay open from 23:00 to 01:00 on that Friday and Saturday - the opening weekend of the tournament. The BBPA had also asked for an extra two hours on the closing weekend, 11 and 12 July.
But the Government has rejected the bid, saying the World Cup was not a "one-off" event like the Queen's Jubilee.
'Exceptional circumstances'
BBPA chief executive Brigid Simmonds told BBC Radio 5 live: "The Home Office wrote back to us and said 'we don't consider this of national importance'. They've really missed something here and they should reconsider." She said a temporary licence would cost pubs a total of £738,000 if they all applied for individual licences.
Individual pubs can apply for a one-off late licence at a cost of £21 or in "exceptional circumstances" ministers can extend hours nationally.
Home Office minister Norman Baker said: "It is our normal practice to only extend licensing hours under the Licensing Act 2003 in exceptional circumstances, usually for one-off events such as the Golden Jubilee rather than prolonged periods," he said.
"Premises which wish to open longer during this time can do so by applying for a Temporary Event Notice extension. This gives local authorities and police an opportunity to feed into the decision making process, allowing them to allocate resources if necessary."
