The unit was perfect. Corner site, good frontage, a landlord willing to do a deal. You exchanged on the lease in March and applied for the premises licence in April, asking for midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. In June you were granted eleven o'clock, with a condition requiring door supervisors after nine and another requiring the windows to be shut after eight. Your business plan assumed the last hour of a Saturday, which is the hour that carries the night.
Licensing in England and Wales is not an administrative step you complete. It is a negotiation with defined parties, and it is far cheaper to conduct before you sign a lease than after.
Four objectives, and nothing else counts
The Licensing Act 2003 gives a licensing authority, which is your local council, exactly four objectives against which it can judge an application:
- the prevention of crime and disorder
- public safety
- the prevention of public nuisance
- the protection of children from harm
That list is exhaustive. Competition is not a licensing consideration. Whether the area already has enough restaurants is not a licensing consideration. Whether a neighbour dislikes the concept is not a licensing consideration. If a representation does not touch one of the four objectives, it is not relevant and the authority should say so.
This cuts both ways. It means a well prepared applicant can answer objections narrowly and factually. It also means that any objection framed properly, particularly around noise, dispersal and smoking areas, has to be dealt with on its merits.
Scotland operates under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 with a fifth objective covering public health, and Northern Ireland has its own regime entirely. If you are trading across the border, do not assume the English process transfers.
The twenty eight days decide the next ten years
Once you apply, there is a consultation period of twenty eight days. During it, the application is advertised: a notice on pale blue paper displayed at the premises where the public can read it, and an advertisement in a local newspaper. Miss a day of the display period and you will be doing the whole thing again.
Two groups can make representations. Responsible authorities, which include the police, the fire and rescue authority, environmental health, planning, trading standards, the child protection body, the local Director of Public Health and the licensing authority itself. And other persons, which since the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 means anybody at all, with no requirement to live nearby.
If nobody objects, the licence must be granted as applied for, subject to mandatory conditions and anything consistent with your own operating schedule. That last part is the sentence most applicants miss. Whatever you write in your operating schedule becomes a condition of the licence. Promise a noise management plan and you have committed to one, permanently, and you will be inspected against it.
If somebody does object, you go to a hearing before a licensing sub committee of councillors. Most conditions are agreed with the police and environmental health in the days before that hearing, which is the real forum. Turning up having already spoken to the police licensing officer is the difference between a productive meeting and an ambush.
Conditions are the part you actually live with
Every premises licence carries mandatory conditions under the Act. No irresponsible drinks promotions. Free tap water on request. An age verification policy, in practice Challenge 21 or Challenge 25. Smaller measures of spirits, wine and beer made available and advertised. Since 2014 there has been a prohibition on selling alcohol below the cost of duty plus VAT.
Beyond those sit the conditions attached in your case, and they can be very specific. CCTV to a stated standard with recordings retained for a stated number of days and produced to the police on request. Door supervisors licensed by the Security Industry Authority from a certain hour. Last entry times. Restrictions on when the garden or terrace may be used. A limit on the number of people outside after a certain hour. A requirement to operate a refusals log and an incident book.
Read each one as an operating cost before you accept it. Two door supervisors on a Friday and Saturday, all year, is a substantial annual sum for a small operation. It may still be worth it for the extra trading hour. Do the arithmetic rather than agreeing on the night to make the hearing end.
The designated premises supervisor is a person, not a title
Alcohol can only be sold under a premises licence if there is a designated premises supervisor named on it, that person holds a personal licence, and every sale is made or authorised by a personal licence holder. A personal licence requires an accredited qualification, a basic disclosure certificate and an application to a licensing authority.
The common and expensive mistake is running a site where the DPS is a manager who has left. The licence does not lapse, but every sale of alcohol in the meantime is potentially unauthorised, which is a criminal offence rather than a paperwork issue. Have a second personal licence holder on the team before you need one, and file the transfer promptly when someone goes.
A licence can be taken away as easily as it was given
Any responsible authority or any other person can apply for a review of your licence. A review can add conditions, cut your hours, remove a licensable activity, remove the DPS, suspend the licence for up to three months or revoke it outright. Reviews usually follow a pattern: repeated noise complaints logged with environmental health, a failed test purchase involving an underage sale, or a serious incident that brings the police.
The defensible position is boring and documented. Keep the refusals log. Keep the incident book. Keep CCTV for the period your condition specifies and know how to export it. Record staff training on age verification with dates and signatures. Answer the first noise complaint properly rather than waiting for the fourth. A licensing sub committee deciding whether you are a problem operator will read your records, and an absence of records reads as an absence of control.
Where an area is under pressure, the council may have adopted a cumulative impact assessment, formalised by the Policing and Crime Act 2017, which shifts the practical burden onto you to show your premises will not add to the problem. Check for one before you fall in love with a postcode.
Where this shows up in the game
The Pub & Bar is one of the five business types in Business Baron's free game, and restaurants and nightclubs are in the full game. Licensing is one of the regimes the game runs, alongside its inspections and a local paper that remembers last year. The last hour of a Saturday is worth a lot, and it is the hour you are most likely to lose.