Scotland the unready

There are many dates which stick in one’s memory, be they birthdays, anniversaries, memories of heroic triumphs or cataclysmic disasters.

I suspect that most of my fellow licensing lawyers are anticipating 1 September 2009 with considerable dread.

Scotland is simply not ready. Out of the hundreds of premises licences which I have successfully applied for, I have seen only two, both from Glasgow. Come 1 September my clients will be committing an offence if the summary of their licence is not on display at their premises. As an aside, the two summaries which I have seen extend to eight pages. Add these to the statutory notices about children, and it is clear that very little natural daylight will be able to filter into the average pub. One presumes that the law enforcement agencies will have to adopt a pragmatic approach in these circumstances, but the same may well not apply to other problems which can be laid at the feet of the licensees themselves.

Who is in charge?

A premises licence will not be effective unless there is a designated premises manager. That person must be the holder of a personal licence. A personal licence holder must possess a relevant licensing qualification. That all sounds terribly simple. Yet I have encountered many licensees who believe that having their ServeWise or BII certificate means that they have a personal licence. Even more frighteningly, there are many in the trade who only now are signing up for the training courses.

Once you have your personal licence, what then? A very good question. Some boards allowed you to nominate a premises manager even if he or she did not have a personal licence at the time of application, then play catch up. Some boards have forms to be completed; some are happy with a letter; others require a minor variation. All of these ancillary matters are rendered more confusing by the absence of any assistance in the regulations, and the fact that each board has been left to invent its own procedures and forms.

Licensed to train?

Training is another issue which will cause huge problems. If you are a board member, you may sit for three months before undertaking training. Remarkably, if you are a licensing standards officer, you have 18 months. But if you are a student looking to supplement your allowance by some part time bar work, not one solitary pint may you pull without having undergone a training programme. This training must be given by the holder of a personal licence, or by someone holding a qualification “accredited for the purposes of [the relevant] regulation by the Scottish Qualifications Authority”.

There is some confusion about this. It would seem daft if persons who were accredited to train people to personal licence standard were not allowed to do staff training; however, one of Scotland’s top licensing lawyers is of the view that at present, only a personal licence holder may carry out the training. Written records must be kept on the premises at all times for inspection on demand by police and LSOs. Holders of personal licences will remember that failure to produce their licences when they are at work will result in conviction, fine and possible endorsement of licence. Full marks to Edinburgh board, who produce their licences in a sensible size with a “necklace”. No marks to the majority of boards who simply issue an A4 sheet of paper, which is unlikely to last for 10 days, never mind 10 years.

Time for a rethink

This process started promisingly, with the excellent Nicholson report. The primary legislation was quite a decent piece of work; however, the subsequent regulations, with their petty and ill considered provisions, do make one wonder whether all

the expense and stress of the last 18 months will really have been worth while.