Licensing Act to remain "fundamental pillar" of regulation: Home Office

The Licensing Act 2003 is to remain “a fundamental pillar in both national and local regulatory frameworks”, a Home Office paper for a House of Lords committee has stated.

A Lords select committee is carrying out post-legislative scrutiny of the Act, which transferred responsibility for licensing to local authorities from magistrates and allowed for longer opening hours to be granted.

The government paper said the legislation’s key principles and objectives had endured, “as its application in practice has proved capable of evolving and adapting to balance divergent interests”.

The Home Office argued that while there had been in excess of 100 cases which cited the 2003 Act, other than a very small number related to section 53C, these had not called into question the drafting of the legislation or raised issues of public concern.

The paper noted how four cases had occurred as a result of the ambiguity in the Act about whether interim steps remain in place between a summary review period and an appeal, and its ambiguity over whether licensing authorities have the power to withdraw or amend the interim steps at the review hearing.

Provisions in the Policing and Crime Bill, currently before Parliament, seek to remove this ambiguity, the Home Office said. “This amendment to the LA2003 will require the Licensing Authority to determine at the review hearing what interim steps should be in place pending the outcome of any appeal, or the expiry of the time limit for making an appeal. These arrangements will allow Licensing Authorities and the police to take effective enforcement action, and will be fairer for businesses. Licensees and the police will be able to appeal the interim steps to a magistrates’ court.”

The paper also highlighted how the Bill will also remove the “costly and burdensome” procedure required every time any change is required to the guidance issued by the Home Secretary under s. 182 to licensing authorities on the discharge of their functions under the Act.

The Home Office suggested that it was impossible to tell for certain how trends in alcohol consumption might have changed without the Act, but “available data suggests that licensing reform has not been accompanied by an increase in alcohol consumption.”

It said the Act’s controversial creation of 24-hour licences had been taken up by 6,000 premises in 2007, rising to 8,400 in before falling slightly to 8,200 in 2014.

Most were for hotel bars or supermarkets and “in context, the number of 24-hour licences remains a very small proportion of the total number of premises licences”, the paper said.

It concluded that since the Act took effect “drinking habits and culture have changed. How far this can be attributed to the [Act] will remain contested.

“What is clear is that the measures enabled by the Licensing Act 2003, supported by strong local governance and accountability, provide the right balance of interests. While the number of licensed premises has increased, alcohol-related crime has not risen in parallel.

“Empowered licensing authorities, increasing numbers of personal licence holders (trained to a consistent standard), and coherent local alcohol strategies provide a regulatory and cultural framework commensurate with changing consumer needs,” it said.

“The LA2003 has improved the day-to-day coordination and cooperation, both within the various regulatory agencies and between the regulators and the licensed trade.”

The paper cited the Crime Survey for England and Wales, which had recorded a decline in adults visiting a pub or bar in the month prior to interview for the survey from 54% in 2004-05 to 50% in 2014-15, with the proportion of adults visiting three or more times a week falling from 8% to 5%.

Between 2007 and 2014 the number of premises licences slightly increased from 185,900 to 204,300 licences, but the number of club licences fell from 17,600 to 15,400.

Mark Smulian