The Home Office consultation document: “Rebalancing the Licensing Act” was launched on Wednesday 28th July 2010, entitled: “A consultation on empowering individuals, families and local communities to shape and determine local licensing.”

by Sarah Clover 

One of the twenty two new bills revealed in the Queen’s Speech in Parliament on the 25th May was the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill. It was introduced as a Bill: “to make the police service more accountable to local people and to tackle alcohol related violence and disorder.” This may sound eerily reminiscent of the Violent Crime Reduction Bill: "A Bill will be introduced to give police and local communities new powers to tackle knives, guns and alcohol-related violence.” Or, indeed, the Policing and Crime Bill: “A Bill to make local police forces more accountable to their communities and increase their effectiveness….. The measures in the new policing and crime bill will ensure that the police and local authorities tackle ... alcohol related crime and disorder.”  

The new Coalition Government has announced that a “complete review” of the Licensing Act 2003 will be undertaken. After speculation earlier in the week that Licensing was going to go into the fold of the Home Office, rather than the Department of Culture Media and Sport, the announcements made by the new Home Secretary, Teresa May, at the police conference might have been thought to confirm it. However, in more news announced today, the 20th May, John Penrose, Tory MP, recently appointed as Minister for Tourism and Heritage, will also take the brief for alcohol and entertainment licensing. Mr Penrose sits across the Department for Business Innovation and Skills and the Department for Culture Media and Sport as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State. We have yet to hear what he has to say about life and licensing.

by Sarah Clover 

The Licensing Team has collected the definitive licensing case-law to assist your research: 

Warning: this is a copy of a handwritten note taken from the extempore judgment handed down in court on the 17th November 2009. All errors of form and substance are those of the note-taker.

Judgment:

The Licensing Act 2003 introduced a new radical system for conferring alcohol and entertainment licences. From its introduction, Licensing Authorities were given responsibility for decisions on the grant of licences, and it was no longer the remit of the Licensing Justices.