The PR&SR Bill completed its Parliamentary passage yesterday and received Royal Assent today making the Bill now an Act.

House of Commons consideration of the House of Lords amendments seems to have been limited to those aspects of the Bill which did not affect licensing and on that basis, the original proposals within the Bill in respect of licensing (and arising out of last summer’s consultation ‘Re-balancing the Licensing Act’) appear to have survived substantially, if not completely, unscathed, despite extensive trade lobbying.

There will need to be a raft of ‘follow up’ secondary legislation and revised Guidance which should be (or it has previously been said will be) the subject of further consultation in due course. The devil may yet prove to be in the detail.

We have seen a suggestion that the principal elements of the Bill may be brought into force in October 2012 but we do not currently know the strength of this.