Licensing Act 2003

Legislation and government guidance

The Licensing Act 2003 is the main legislation and can be found on the HMSO website or via this direct link.

Guidance has been made under section 182 of the Act and this document also contains guidance to Police Officers on the operation of closure powers in part 8 of the Act.

There are several sets of Regulations made which again are available on the DCMS website (link to Regulations) . Please note the following quote from DCMS on the Regulations "The documents (Regulations) are provided only in order to be helpful. They are the drafts that were laid before parliament and contain some typographical errors. These are being corrected and will be republished shortly." In the light of this statement please be aware that there may be some changes to the Regulations. The application forms contained in these regulations should not therefore be used. Please use the link to the application forms at the top of this section.

This Council has also agreed a Policy (link to the Licensing Policy, PDF file) in relation to the Act.

This licensing policy has four main purposes, these are:

• To advise elected Members of the Licensing Committee on the boundaries and powers of the Licensing Authority and to provide them with parameters within which to make their decisions. The Committee should be able to test the application against criteria set out in the policy and, if necessary, add conditions to those set out in the operating schedule.
• To inform the licence applicants of the parameters under which the Licensing Authority will make licence decisions, and therefore how a licensed premises is likely to be able to operate within an area.
• To inform residents and businesses of the parameters under which the Licensing Authority will make licence decisions, and therefore how their needs will be addressed.
• To inform a court of law how the Licensing Authority arrived at its decisions when these are challenged in a court, and to support these decisions.