Government consults on abolishing personal licences

The Licensing Act 2003 introduced the concept of a “split” licence, i.e. a personal licence which an individual could take with them wherever they worked, and a separate licence for the premises itself. However the Home Office has recently published a consultation document seeking views on whether personal licences should be scrapped. The alternative suggested is that national benchmarks for training be retained, and individual licensing authorities be allowed to take a targeted approach by imposing conditions, where appropriate, on premises licensing requiring for example all staff to be CRB checked and / or all sales of alcohol to be authorised by the Designated Premises Supervisor. What the response to these suggestions both from the trade and from those who oppose relaxing the current regime will be, remains to be seen.