Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005

131 Appeals

(1) A decision of a Licensing Board specified in the left-hand column of schedule 5 may be appealed by the person specified in the right-hand column of that schedule.

(2) An appeal under this section is to be made by way of stated case, at the instance of the appellant, to—

(a) where the decision appealed is specified in Part 1 of schedule 5, the sheriff principal, or

(b) where the decision appealed is specified in Part 2 of that schedule, the sheriff,

of the appropriate sheriffdom.

(3) The grounds on which a Licensing Board’s decision may be appealed under this section are—

(a) that, in reaching the decision, the Licensing Board—

(i) erred in law,

(ii) based their decision on an incorrect material fact,

(iii) acted contrary to natural justice, or

(iv) exercised their discretion in an unreasonable manner, or

(b) where the decision is to take any of the steps mentioned in subsection (4), that the step taken is disproportionate in all the circumstances.

(4) Those steps are—

(a) at a review hearing in respect of a premise licence—

(i) issuing a written warning to the licence holder,

(ii) revoking or suspending the licence, or

(iii) making a variation of the licence, or

(b) making an order revoking, suspending or endorsing a personal licence.

(5) Where the sheriff principal or, as the case may be, sheriff upholds an appeal against a Licensing Board’s decision under this section, the sheriff principal or sheriff may—

(a) remit the case back to the Licensing Board for reconsideration of the decision,

(b) reverse the decision, or

(c) make, in substitution for the decision, such other decision as the sheriff principal or sheriff considers appropriate, being a decision of such nature as the Licensing Board could have made.

(6) In this section, “the appropriate sheriffdom” means the sheriffdom in which the principal office of the Licensing Board whose decision is being appealed is situated.