We had a technical glitch on the previous eNews. Certain sections repeated themselves. Hopefully this will come out clean. Have a nice weekend.

Subscribers to our eNews will be aware of the fact that there are, under new Government procedures, draft Legislative Reform Orders, proposed by the Department of Culture, Media & Sport, to make two alterations to licensing laws:

The first and most important issue is to propose a new system for minor variations to existing licences which would involve amending the 2003 Act. At present any variation requires a major application advertised in the local newspaper with a notice on the premises and a fairly large fee. The application may relate to relatively minor changes in the plans and it is very unlikely there will be any opposition. The Government proposes a new minor variations procedure. This would not involve changing the hours during which the premises operates (in any significant way) or making any other major change. To most of us involved in the drafting procedure, the proposal didn't go far enough. The House of Lords has however decided that it goes too far. As a result, they are proposing that it will be subject to the super-affirmative resolution procedure. One result of this is that it will require an initial scrutiny period of 60 days rather than 30 days, and will almost certainly miss the proposed implementation date in April. The reason the House of Lords makes this proposal is their concern that local residences and businesses in the locality will not be able to express a view if the application is not advertised publically.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the other proposal that there is not a need for a DPS with a personal licence on community premises such as village halls and church halls has been made subject to the affirmative procedure. This is not as bad as the super-affirmative procedure and frankly should go through without too many problems. The House of Commons is likely to agree with the House of Lords in respect of both procedures.

What this means is that the proposal to remove the DPS from church halls, village halls etc. should become law in April whereas the more important minor variations procedure is likely to take longer. It could come in in September, if it is approved. It would be possible to bring it in earlier and we'll simply have to wait and see. With the current degree of attention focussed on all alcohol related issues, the delay is perhaps not that surprising.