Alcohol Licensing Information

In order to carry out retail sale of alcohol legally, one needs to procure a personal license. The new system of licenses that is the Licensing Act 2003 has completely transformed the entire system. This system enables the licensees to sell alcohol to the general public on or off the premises, just like a driving license that authorizes an individual to drive vehicles.

Types of Licences

Basically there are two types of licences, personal alcohol license and premises licence. Premises that intends to sell alcohol for the consumption of general public needs to acquire a premises licence and an individual with personal licence to authorize the sale of alcohol. Even though it is not mandatory for each and every provider in a premise to have personal licence, yet there should be at least one personal licence holder, no matter if he is the manager, owner or one of the staff members.

                                    
Licence Application Procedure

Both the personal and the premises alcohol licences can be applied through a local council. The application may either be online or by means of post. In order to determine whether you local council accepts online application or not, you would need to contact the council.

The licence application should be accompanied with a licence fee. The non-domestic value (NDRV) of the property determines the amount of the licence fee. Besides the licence obtainment fee, there will also be an annual fee. The duplicate copies of the application need to be sent to other relevant authorities as well such as the fire service, police, environmental health authority etc.

Prerequisites

All the individuals who wish to obtain a personal alcohol license are required to hold a licensing qualification that is the National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) Level 2. They should also be over eighteen years of age. Once all requirements are meet, one can apply for the licence.