Home Office sets out process for renewing personal licences

The Home Office has written to licensing authorities to set out the procedure that must be followed for the renewal of personal licences before the Deregulation Bill comes into effect.

If the Bill is approved by Parliament, the requirement to renew personal licences will be abolished by spring next year.

However, the first personal licences were granted in February 2005 and must be renewed before their tenth anniversary.

The Home Office said in its letter: “Unfortunately, this situation is beyond our control but we have developed an approach which will minimise the burden on licensing authorities and licence holders.”

It explained that the Government would introduce new arrangements through secondary legislation for those whose licences are due for renewal before the proposal in the Bill comes into force.

“We will alter the application form to renew a licence so that licence holders are required to provide only essential information to the licensing authority,” the Home Office said.

“Applicants will not have to enclose an application fee, photographs, a criminal convictions certificate, criminal record certificate or the results of a subject access search of the Police National Computer.”

The standard requirement to notify licensing authorities of relevant or foreign offences committed by the licence holder will remain.

The Home Office said an application form would be available in due course, as soon as the secondary legislation is approved by Parliament.

Applicants will have to complete the form and submit it to their licensing authority no later than one month before their licence expires. They will also have to enclose their licence or a copy, the Home Office said.

It pointed out that section 119 of the Licensing Act 2003 provided that where an application for renewal was pending and the application had not been determined before the licence expired, the licence continued to have effect.

The Home Office urged authorities to acknowledge receipt of applications so that applicants can have certainty that their forms have been received.

The Government has published two factsheets explaining what needs to be done: one for licensing authorities and one for personal licence holders whose licences are due for renewal in early 2015.

Brigid Simmonds, chief executive of the British Beer & Pub Association, welcomed the Home Office’s move.

She said: “It is vital that we have a smooth process to ensure that licences due for renewal do not lapse before new legislation takes effect. I am grateful to the Home Office for finding a solution and I am sure local authorities will co-operate with the spirit and intention behind this until the Deregulation Bill becomes an Act of Parliament.”