The Alcohol Licensing (Coronavirus) (Regulatory Easements) (Amendment) Regulations 2023

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend section 172F(10)(d)(i) of the Licensing Act 2003 (c. 17) (“the 2003 Act”) and section 11(13) of the Business and Planning Act 2020 (c. 16). Section 11 makes temporary modifications to the 2003 Act and specifies that these modifications expire on 30 September 2023.

The modifications provide automatic extensions of premises licences that only permit sales of alcohol for consumption on the premises (“on-sales”) to allow sales of alcohol for consumption off the premises (“off-sales”). They also apply temporary conditions to licences where there is a pre-existing permission for off-sales, to enable those premises to operate in the same ways as those granted the new permission, and provide for off-sales reviews to take place on grounds which are relevant to one or more of the licensing objectives. The licensing objectives are set out in section 4 of the 2003 Act.

Regulation 2 extends the application of the modifications for a period of 18 months, from 30 September 2023 to 31 March 2025. The expiry date was changed to 30 September 2023 from 30 September 2022 by S.I. 2022/978. Prior to that, S.I. 2021/1049 had changed the expiry date to 30 September 2022.

The amendments are made to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

An impact assessment on extending regulatory easements for off-sales for 18 months has not been completed. However, a full impact assessment of the effect that making the regulatory easements for off-sales permanent would have on the costs of business and the voluntary sector and community bodies has previously been produced and is available alongside this instrument on www.legislation.gov.uk and is also available from the Alcohol Policy Team, Home Office, 2 Marsham Street, London, SWIP 4DF.