The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 – Consultation on reviewing the fee for occasional licences and considering a limit on the number and duration of occasional licences

The current fee does not adequately cover the cost of administering and issuing occasional licences.

£10 does not cover the cost of administering the process for the granting of an occasional licence.

Upon receipt of an application, the following process applies:

• The Board has to check the application to ensure it is competent and contains the necessary information;
• The application goes out for consultation with Police Scotland and LSO.
• At the same time, the application is published on the Boards’ website.
• If there are any public objections or representations or if anything is received from police or LSOs then this has to be sent to the applicant. There will nearly always be a representation from police or LSO that certain conditions must attach and admin staff at the Board will have to liaise with the applicant about this.
• Hearings are relatively infrequent however when they do occur:-
o a Depute Clerk will have to draft a report for the Board
o admin staff will have to issue agenda papers and notify parties.
o There will be the time spent by a Depute Clerk and admin staff both during and after the hearing.
o All parties have to be notified of the Board’s decision after the hearing
o Finally, admin staff will have to send out the licence to the applicant and notify the police and LSO that it has been granted.

An analysis of the time taken to process these applications and the costs involved shows that the cost per unit varies markedly depending on whether or not an application requires a hearing. If an application is relatively straightforward an application costs £48 to process and issue. Incorporating the cost of a hearing increases overall processing cost to £310 per application. These figures are conservative. Given that it is impossible to know in advance which applications will require a hearing it could be argued that the fairest way to deal with this is to take an average of the number of hearings for occasional licences and share that cost over the number of applications that we receive in a year. Consistently we have at least 1,500 applications a year across the three Aberdeenshire Boards and on average, across the Boards there can be up to 10 hearings per year. In order to be fair, by adding £2 per licence in this way this would cover the processing cost of the hearings across the Board. This would bring out to a processing cost of £50 per application.

The three Aberdeenshire Boards were conscious of inflationary pressures on costs and the fact that the fee has not been reviewed for approximately ten years. The Central Aberdeenshire Divisional Licensing Board were of the view that although the costs are currently in the region of £50 per application that the fee should be set at £75 in order to future proof it. The South and North Aberdeenshire Divisional Boards both considered that the fee should be set at £50 but that it should be index linked. The North Board took the view that if it could not be index linked it should be £75.

Please see comments at 4 above. One of the Aberdeenshire Boards were of the view that the fee should be £75 and another of the three Boards took the view that it ought to be £50 index linked otherwise it should be fixed at £75

See comments above supporting £50 ( to be index linked) and £75.

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We have cost unit calculations that we would be willing to discuss with the Scottish Government if so requested.

The Aberdeenshire Licensing Boards Policy Statement catches multiple applications being made for the same premises where a premises licence might be more appropriate. This is intended to ensure that occasional licences are not misused. Each application will however still be considered on its own merits, based on the grounds of refusal, taking into account related applications and the history of applications for the same premises.

Limiting the number/duration of applications available to any one personal or premises licence holder may not reduce the overall number of occasional licences or the number of licences granted for any particular premises. Events organisers may very well be able to find another applicant if their preferred choice had reached the limit of licences they could apply for.

If such a limit is effective in limiting the number or duration of occasional licences (and it is open to doubt that this may actually be achieved) it could nevertheless lead to certain undesirable consequences. Alcohol could still be available at events on an unregulated “BYO” basis. Whilst licensing law would not apply this could be incompatible with many if not all of the licensing objectives.

It is our view that it is better to have a licensed, and therefore regulated, event and not an unregulated BYO event.

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Limiting the number of licences that could be granted to any particular premises could have unforeseen and unfortunate consequences for many smaller venues in rural locations. In the first place the persons or body responsible for running the venue (typically a village or community hall committee) would have to regulate and limit the number of licensed events available in any twelve month period. This could lead to a situation where a hall had reached the limit of its quota and a number of months (perhaps over the festive period) passed where no licensed events could take place. Ensuring that there was a fair “rationing” of licence applications throughout any twelve month period would be onerous and place an additional burden on unpaid volunteers.

In addition this could lead to an increase in unregulated BYO events . Police and LSO will not be notified of such events and there will be no scrutiny under the Licensing (Scotland ) Act 2005. Reference has already been made to how this could undermine the licensing objectives

It is not clear what the purpose of such a restriction would be but if it is intended to reduce the number of occasional licences granted it may be ineffective. An event organiser may well turn to an alternative applicant if their preferred choice had reached their prescribed limit.

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There is currently no requirement for there to be any formal connection to an occasional licence requiring to be connected to an “occasion” or “event”, save as provided for in individual Boards’ Policy Statements. There have been concerns that some applicants have sought to use the occasional licence process to apply for consecutive occasional licences to run businesses involving the sale of alcohol as an alternative to trading under the legal requirement of a full premises licence under the 2005 Act. This is to an extent covered in our current Licensing Policy Statement which requires a hearing to be held where a pattern of consecutive applications begin to emerge and there have been a number of recent hearings before Boards to consider such applications.

The Aberdeenshire Boards note that the current position where only voluntary bodies are subject to a limit has worked satisfactorily although there has been concern that certain premises may have misused occasional licences in a situation where a premises licence is more appropriate. It is for this reason that the Boards’ policy document now includes the policy below. The Boards believe that this policy will ensure that occasional licence applications are not misused but that each case can be considered by the Board on its own merits.
Any changes that are proposed must be carefully thought through and consulted upon to ensure that there are no unintended consequences for rural authorities.

Extract from Aberdeenshire Licensing Board Policy:-

Repeated Occasional Licence Applications
4.36 Repeated applications for Occasional licence for the same unlicensed premises, and which are:-
Not for detailed specific events; and/or


For activities that have been occurring (either in identical or largely similar terms) on the premises regularly over a period of at least 3 months;


Will not generally be considered to be suitable for the grant of an Occasional Licence and will not be granted by the Boards under delegated authority but will require a hearing before the relevant Board. The Boards expect such premises to be operating under a Premises Licence.

4.37 Section 59(6) of the Act specifies the grounds for refusal of an application for an Occasional Licence. These grounds include “that the Licensing Board considers the granting of the application would be inconsistent with one or more of the licensing objectives”. These licensing objectives include:-

• Securing public safety.
• Protecting and improving public health.

The degree of scrutiny afforded by an application for a Premises Licence is not present where premises operate under a series of consecutive Occasional Licences. Accordingly, in the interests of better securing public safety and/or for better protecting and improving public health, the Board considers that it is not generally appropriate for a premises to operate on a series of consecutive Occasional Licences rather than apply for a Premises Licence and, in these circumstances, the Board will require an applicant to explain why an application for a Premises Licence is not being made.