Licensing authorities still lukewarm over late night levy and EMROs

Licensing authorities remain extremely lukewarm about implementing early morning restriction orders (EMROs) and late night levies, research has suggested.

Law firm Poppleston Allen’s Late Night Licensing Survey 2012 found slightly more licensing authorities (8.7%) reporting that they were likely to implement EMROs. In the 2011 edition of the research, fewer than 5% said they would do so.

Nearly half (47.2%) said they were unlikely to implement the orders, which would restrict the sale of alcohol in all or part of affected areas between midnight and 6 am.

Reasons given for not implementing EMROs included the likely negative perception of areas covered and the availability of existing tools to deal with issues effectively.

The number of licensing authorities saying they were likely to implement a late night levy – to contribute to the costs of extra policing and other activities – meanwhile fell from 9.9% in 2011 to just over 6% this year.

More than half (50.7%) said they were unlikely to implement a levy, an increase of 45 authorities compared to 12 months ago.

Poppleston Allen partner Jonathan Smith said: “The findings indicate a clear change of licensing authorities’ attitude towards implementing the levy over the past six months and a general lack of appetite for the implementation of the measure.”

Smith pointed out that almost nine times as many authorities said they were unlikely to implement the levy than those likely to.

“Justifications for the negative attitude towards the levy included that the levy would neither be fair nor proportionate if covering all premises in a licensing authority’s jurisdiction, with some authorities once again describing the levy to us as a 'stealth tax',” he said.

Concerns were reported that the levy would not be financially viable given the 70:30 split of revenues in favour of the police. Additional issues surrounded accountability and control on how the majority of the levy funds would be used.

The levy and EMROs were flagship measures introduced by the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011.

Poppleston Allen’s Smith said: “In short, although generally licensing authorities seem less likely to implement either measure, the findings still suggest there is a shift of opinion towards EMROs and away from the levy.”