Two licences, two different jobs.
In England and Wales, selling alcohol takes two licences. The premises licence belongs to the business and covers the building: what may happen there, when, and under what conditions. The personal licence belongs to a person and goes with them from job to job. Both come from the local council.14
The premises licence covers four licensable activities: selling alcohol, supplying it to club members, regulated entertainment, and late night refreshment, meaning hot food or hot drink served between 11pm and 5am. List every one you plan to offer, with its hours.56
The two licences meet in one person, the designated premises supervisor. Every licence that allows alcohol sales must name a DPS who holds a personal licence, and every sale must be made or authorised by a personal licence holder. Authorised is the key word: the holder doesn’t have to be in the building for each sale.114
So start with the personal licence.
How to get a personal licence.
Anyone can apply, with or without a job lined up. The council must grant a personal licence when four things are true.417
- Aged 18 or overAnd entitled to work in the UK.
- A licensing qualificationAn accredited Level 2 Award for Personal Licence Holders, the APLH, from one of the bodies the Home Office lists, such as BIIAB, Highfield, SQA or TQUK.
- No forfeited licenceNo personal licence forfeited in the five years before you apply.
- No relevant convictionsOr, if there is an unspent conviction for a relevant offence, the police haven’t objected, or the council has heard their objection and still decided to grant.
Apply to the council where you live, not where the venue is, with your qualification certificate, proof of your right to work, a criminal record check and the £37 fee. If the check shows a relevant offence, the police have 14 days to object, and you are entitled to a hearing.41725
A personal licence has no end date. Since the Deregulation Act 2015 removed renewals, it lasts until it is surrendered, suspended, revoked or forfeited, or the holder loses the right to work in the UK. Tell the council that issued it about a new name or address and any conviction for a relevant offence. It can suspend the licence for up to six months, or revoke it.164
Put every bar manager through the APLH, not only the DPS. When the DPS leaves, you can name someone already on the team that week.
One of those holders becomes the person the licence is built around.
The designated premises supervisor.
The DPS is normally the person who runs the premises day to day, chosen by the licence holder. They sign a consent form and their name goes on the licence, a summary of which is displayed at the premises so officers can see at once who is in charge. A licence names one DPS at a time, though one person can supervise more than one venue, and the DPS doesn’t have to be on site every hour you open.41
When a DPS leaves, apply to name the new one, for £23. The police have 14 days to object, and only in exceptional circumstances, and you can ask for the new DPS to take over straight away. Tell the outgoing DPS the same day. Don’t let the gap run on: with no DPS, no alcohol can be sold.1225411
With your DPS lined up, apply for the premises licence itself.
How to apply for a premises licence.
Apply to the council for the area the premises are in, online through GOV.UK or the council’s own site, or on paper. Read its statement of licensing policy first. It shows how the council approaches hours, whether a cumulative impact assessment covers your street, and what it expects an application to show. Inside a cumulative impact area, the Home Office guidance expects you to explain why yours should be an exception.94
- Find your bandThe fee follows the premises’ non-domestic rateable value, which the Valuation Office Agency publishes.
- Write the operating scheduleThe activities and their hours, your opening hours, whether alcohol is for drinking on or off the premises, the DPS’s details, and the steps you will take to promote the licensing objectives.
- Draw the planClear and legible, though it needn’t be professionally drawn or to scale, showing what the licence covers, including any outdoor area you will sell drinks from.
- Add the DPS consentSigned by the personal licence holder you are naming.
- Send it with the feeApply online and the council copies it to the responsible authorities. Apply on paper and you copy it to each of them.
- Put up the blue noticeA pale blue notice, A4 or larger, at the premises for 28 consecutive days from the day after you apply, plus one every 50 metres of outside perimeter if the premises are over 50 square metres.
- Advertise in the paperAt least once in a local newspaper within 10 working days, starting the day after you apply.
The responsible authorities are the police, fire and rescue, environmental health, planning, trading standards, the body that protects children from harm, public health, the health and safety enforcer, the licensing authority itself and Home Office Immigration Enforcement.81
Write the operating schedule for a full Saturday, not a quiet Tuesday. The steps you offer become your conditions.
Once the blue notice is up, the clock starts.
The 28 days, representations and hearings.
For 28 consecutive days from the day after you apply, the responsible authorities and anyone else, wherever they live, can make representations. To count, one must be about the licensing objectives: preventing crime and disorder, public safety, preventing public nuisance and protecting children from harm. A rival bar worried about the competition doesn’t count.1974
If nobody makes a relevant representation, the council must grant the licence as applied for, with conditions matching your operating schedule plus the mandatory ones. You can start trading as soon as you are told, before the licence itself arrives.104
If somebody does, a hearing must be held within 20 working days of the end of the 28 days, unless everyone agrees one isn’t needed. The committee can grant as asked, add or change conditions, leave out activities, refuse the DPS you named or reject the application. You, and anyone who made a representation, can appeal to the magistrates’ court within 21 days.10214
Meet the police licensing officer and environmental health before you apply. A condition agreed over a coffee costs far less than one argued at a hearing.
The fee goes in with the application, and you can work it out to the pound before you start.
Premises licence fees by rateable value band.
Fees are set nationally by the premises’ non-domestic rateable value, and a full variation costs the same as a new application. Bands D and E pay two or three times the band fee if the premises are used mainly for selling alcohol to drink on site.22231
Premises licence fees in England and Wales
| Band | Rateable value | Application or full variation | Annual fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | None to £4,300 | £100 | £70 |
| B | £4,301 to £33,000 | £190 | £180 |
| C | £33,001 to £87,000 | £315 | £295 |
| D | £87,001 to £125,000 | £450 | £320 |
| E | £125,001 and above | £635 | £350 |
| D, mainly drinking on the premises | £87,001 to £125,000 | £900 | £640 |
| E, mainly drinking on the premises | £125,001 and above | £1,905 | £1,050 |
| Application or notice | Fee |
|---|---|
| Personal licence | £37 |
| Change of DPS | £23 |
| Transfer of a premises licence | £23 |
| Minor variation | £89 |
| Temporary event notice | £21 |
| Provisional statement, for premises being built or altered | £315 |
The annual fee is due each year on the anniversary of the grant. If it goes unpaid the council must suspend the licence, and nothing licensable can happen until you pay. The only grace period, 21 days, is for an administrative error or a dispute raised by the due date.244
Put the anniversary in two calendars, the owner’s and the DPS’s.
A licence also has to change as the business does.
Variations, minor variations, transfers and reviews.
A full variation, for later alcohol hours or a substantial change to the premises, follows the new licence process: blue notice, newspaper, 28 days and the same fee.1134
A minor variation costs £89, for changes that couldn’t harm the licensing objectives: a small layout change, removing an activity, cutting alcohol hours, dropping an out-of-date condition or adding an agreed one. A white notice goes up for 10 working days, with no newspaper and no hearing, and the council must decide within 15 working days. It can’t add alcohol, allow sales between 11pm and 7am or for longer each day, change the DPS or vary the premises substantially.13426
A transfer moves the licence to a new holder, for example when you buy the business. It costs £23, and with the current holder’s consent it can take effect the moment the council receives it, so trading doesn’t stop. The police, within 14 days, and Home Office Immigration Enforcement can object only in exceptional circumstances.1415254
Reviews are where licences are lost. Once a licence is granted, a responsible authority or anyone else can ask for one over a problem at the premises. After a hearing the council can change the conditions, remove an activity or the DPS, suspend the licence for up to three months or revoke it. Trading outside the licence or its conditions is an offence carrying up to six months in prison, a fine, or both.418
The best defence is running the room to the letter of the licence every night: its hours, its conditions and, where one is set, its capacity.
Temporary event notices.
A temporary event notice covers licensable activities your licence doesn’t, such as a night past your licensed hours, or an event somewhere with no licence at all. An individual aged 18 or over gives it, not a company, and it costs £21.27425
- SizeFewer than 500 people at any one time, staff included.
- LengthUp to 168 hours, or seven days.
- NoticeAt least 10 clear working days before the event. A late TEN can be given between 9 and 5 clear working days before.
- How manyFive a year per person, or 50 with a personal licence. Late TENs are limited to 2 a year, or 10 with a personal licence. One premises can have up to 15 a year, covering no more than 21 days in all.
- ObjectionsThe police and environmental health have 3 working days to object on licensing objective grounds.
A TEN needs no DPS, and its sales don’t need a personal licence holder’s authority. The person who signs it is responsible for keeping the numbers under the limit.4
Give TENs early. An objection to a standard TEN goes to a hearing; an objection to a late one ends the event.
All of this is the law in England and Wales. Over the borders, the shape changes.
Scotland and Northern Ireland work differently.
Scotland licenses under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005. Premises licences come from the local Licensing Board, and each names a premises manager who must hold a personal licence. A Scottish personal licence holder must show the Board refresher training within 3 months after each five-year period, or the Board must revoke the licence. Instead of TENs, an occasional licence covers unlicensed premises for up to 14 days. Boards set their own policies, so check with yours; our Glasgow and Edinburgh guides cover two of them.282930311
Northern Ireland has its own law, the Licensing (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, under which the county court grants liquor licences for up to five years at a time. Check the detail locally before you plan anything; our Belfast guide is a starting point.32
For tronc, door staff and the rest, see the UK rules page and our guides to London, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds. Our SIA licence guide covers the door, how to get a liquor licence sets the UK beside the US and Canada, and how to open a nightclub puts the licence in order with everything else.