Licensing Act 2003
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| Long title | An Act to make provision about the regulation of the sale and supply of alcohol, the provision of entertainment and the provision of late night refreshment, about offences relating to alcohol and for connected purposes. |
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| Citation | 2003 c 17 |
| Territorial extent | England and Wales, except that section 155(1) also extends to Northern Ireland and an amendment or repeal contained in Schedule 6 or 7 has the same extent as the enactment to which it relates. |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 10 July 2003 |
| Commencement | See section 201(2) and the orders made thereunder. |
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Status: Amended
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| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Revised text of statute as amended | |
The Licensing Act 2003 (c 17) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act establishes a single integrated scheme for licensing premises in England and Wales (only) which are used for the sale or supply of alcohol, to provide regulated entertainment, or to provide late night refreshment. Permission to carry on some or all of these licensable activities is now contained in a single licence — the premises licence — replacing several different and complex schemes. Responsibility for issuing licences now rests with local authorities, specifically London boroughs, Metropolitan boroughs, unitary authorities, and district councils, who took over this power from the Justices of the Peace. These authorities are each required to establish a Licensing Committee, which acts in a quasi-judicial capacity under the Act. The powers of the Act came fully into force at midnight at the start of 24 November 2005.
Key measures contained in the Act include:
Each local authority must set up a Licensing Committee with between ten and fifteen members. It is envisaged that most member level decisions will be made by a sub-committee of three. The Committee can and should have a scheme of delegation for different types of decision; this means that many applications will be decided by officers. The full Committee is expected to receive monitoring reports.
The Committee is regarded as quasi-judicial, and many of the requirements of a normal council committee (e.g. on access to data) will not apply. The Committee should make its decisions in accordance with the principles of natural justice and with regard to the Human Rights Act 1998 (Articles 1, 6 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights are likely to be engaged). It has been suggested that councillors should not be involved in any way in decisions on premises in their ward, and the Standards Board for England has advised that only councillors who are members of the Committee should have any role in considering applications.
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