Department for Culture Media and Sport
Every three years a licensing authority must review and publish its licensing policy for the next three year period.
This details how the authority intends to operate and reflect the licensing objectives. It is known as a licensing statement.
Licensing authorities must refer to the licensing guidance issued by the Secretary of State in all their activities.
When reviewing their policy, licensing authorities must consult:
Any revisions made during the three year period (following consultation with the parties listed above) must also be published, either as a statement of the revisions, or as a revised licensing statement.
The licensing statement provides transparency for everyone, including local residents and applicants for licences, who will be able to refer to the statement when making representations or when preparing their applications.
It is recommended that it should also describe how the licensing authority's approach to licensing will be integrated with local council planning, crime prevention, transport and cultural strategies and any action plan or strategy for the management of the evening economy.
Licensing policy statements should avoid duplicating other requirements. For example, health and safety regulations will already place a range of general duties on employers and venue operators.
Conditions attached to a premises licence have to be necessary for the promotion of the licensing objectives and must be tailored to the individual style and characteristics of the premises and activities undertaken there. Standardised conditions should be avoided and could be unlawful.
It is however acceptable for licensing authorities to draw attention in their statements of policy to pools of conditions from which necessary and proportionate conditions may be drawn in appropriate circumstances.
Where no relevant representations are made about an application for or application to vary a premises licence, the licensing authority cannot impose any conditions other than those which are mandatory under the Act.
‘Cumulative impact’ or ‘saturation’ are terms used to describe a situation where there is a high concentration of a type or types of alcohol licensed premises in one area.
A licensing authority should indicate in the statement that it is adopting a special policy of refusing new alcohol licences whenever it receives relevant representations about the cumulative impact on the licensing objectives in an identified area. In such cases, applicants would have to demonstrate they would not contribute to cumulative impact, before the licence could be granted. For further information please see Section 13.24 on page 102 of the Statutory Guidance.
Full information about licensing authorities is contained in Chapter 17 of the Licensing Act 2003.