The Licensing Act 2003 (Premises licences and club premises certificates) (Amendment) Regulations 2012

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Licensing Act 2003 (Premises licences and club premises certificates) Regulations 2005 (S.I. 2005/42) (“the 2005 Regulations) to give effect to certain amendments made to the Licensing Act 2003 (“the 2003 Act”) by the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011. The category of “interested party” is removed from the 2003 Act to enable any person to participate in the various processes set out in that Act, regardless of their physical proximity to the premises concerned. Moreover, the Secretary of State must by regulations require licensing authorities to advertise certain applications in a prescribed form and in a prescribed manner which is likely to bring the application to the attention of persons likely to be affected by it.

These Regulations prescribe new requirements in relation to the applications, notices and representations given or made under Parts 3 and 4 of the 2003 Act.

Regulations 3, 4, 6, 7 and 9 amend regulations 2, 22, 26, 26A, 37 and 39 of the 2005 Regulations so as to replace references in them to interested parties with references to any person.

Regulation 5 amends the heading to regulation 25 of the 2005 regulations so as to clarify the subject to which this provision relates.

Regulation 8 inserts new regulations 26B and 26C into the 2005 Regulations. Regulation 26B sets out the requirement on a licensing authority to advertise an application for the grant or variation of a licence or certificate, or the application for a provisional statement. The licensing authority must advertise the application for the period of 28 days starting on the day after the day on which it receives the application, and it must publish a notice on its website containing the information set out in regulation 26C. Under regulation 26C, that information depends on the type of application being made but, in all cases, must include the applicant’s name, certain addresses, the date by which persons can make representations and the manner in which such representations should be made.

Under regulations 10 and 11, the forms prescribed in Schedules 1 and 2 to these Regulations replace the forms prescribed respectively in Schedules 6 and 8 to the 2005 Regulations. Regulation 10 has the effect of removing a minor error in the preceding version of the form. Regulation 11 has the effect of removing a reference to an interested party from the preceding version of the form.

An impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on businesses, charities, voluntary bodies or the public sector is foreseen.