Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011

Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011

2011 CHAPTER 13

Overview

Part 2 – Licensing

Amendments of the Licensing Act 2003

Section 112: Temporary event notices: who may make an objection

328. The Licensing Act 2003 currently includes a scheme which enables an individual to carry on a licensable activity, on a temporary basis, by virtue of a temporary event notice. To hold a temporary event, the event holder (‘premises user’) must send a temporary event notice to the licensing authority and the Chief Officer of Police at least 10 working days before the event. The Chief Officer, if satisfied that the temporary event would undermine the crime prevention objective, must send an objection notice to the licensing authority and premises user no later than 2 working days after receipt of the temporary event notice.

329. Police objections trigger a requirement on the licensing authority to hold a hearing and may result in a counter notice being sent to the premises user if the licensing authority takes the view that the temporary event would undermine the crime prevention objective. The licensing authority must also give the premises user a counter notice if one of the prescribed limits is exceeded. If a counter notice is issued, the temporary event notice will no longer authorise any licensable activities taking place under it.

330. Section 112 extends the right to object to a temporary event notice to the environmental health authority, and allows the police and the environmental health authority for the area in which the premises are situated (defined as ‘relevant persons’), to object to a temporary event on the grounds of all four licensing objectives. It also allows licensing authorities to issue a counter notice under section 105 of the Act on the basis of all four of the licensing objectives.

331. Subsections (2) to (13) amend sections 104 to 107 and 194 of, and Schedule 5 to, the Licensing Act 2003.These amendments introduce the new category of ‘relevant person’, and revise and adapt the processes governing objections from relevant persons; these relate to the holding of a hearing or modification of a temporary event notice following receipt of objections from one or both relevant persons, the notices which the relevant licensing authority must send to the premises user and relevant persons, the timetable governing when these steps must be taken, and extend existing rights of appeal to the magistrates’ court to those involved in the process. These amendments do not represent a departure from the existing processes in Part 5 of the Act, but adapt these to facilitate the involvement of the environmental health officer and the ability of relevant persons to object on the basis of all the licensing objectives.

332. Subsection (14) makes provision for the application of these amendments.