What to do if your Personal Licence to sell alcohol has been revoked for failing to notify refresher training?

What has happened?

Thousands of personal licences are being revoked after the deadline passed for personal licence holders who had their licence granted on or before 1 September 2009 to complete the training required.

After the deadline passed on 30 November, licensing boards across Scotland started advising personal licence holders who had failed either to undertake training or notify them of completion of training that their personal licence had been revoked.

The revocation carries with it a prohibition on a new application within five years

Licensing boards had no discretion on the matter as Section 87 of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 makes the revocation of licence a mandatory step for the licensing board.

Act quickly to keep selling alcohol

If this has happened to your personal licence and you are named as a designated premises manager (“DPM”) on any premises licence, you must take immediate steps if you wish to continue to sell alcohol on those premises.

It is necessary (a) to notify the premises licence issuing licensing board that your personal licence has been revoked and therefore you can no longer be the DPM and (b) the premises licence holder must apply to vary the premises licence to appoint a new DPM.

Step (a) must be taken within 7 days of the personal licence being revoked and step (b) must be taken within 6 weeks of the revocation of personal licence.

If both steps are taken, alcohol may continue to be sold on the premises.

We can help – get in touch now

As the timescales are tight, you must act now. Failure to take these steps may result in alcohol being sold unlawfully and therefore rendering you liable to prosecution.

We can help with notification and variation. For further advice and assistance contact Andrew Hunter on 0141 227 9388.