£60m cost of Scottish licensing act could close thousands of pubs

Scotland’s new licensing laws, which come into force today (1 September), have cost licensees £60m and it’s feared the additional financial burden will force thousands of pubs out of business.

The Scottish Beer and Pub Association’s chief executive Patrick Patrick Browne described the extra costs under the 2005 Licensing Act as prohibitive for many Scottish pubs.

“The cost of obtaining new licences, layout plans and training is between £3,000 to £4,000 for the average pub and with 17,000 licensed properties in Scotland this equates to around £60m,” he said.

Licensing fees are expected to soar from £138m to between £1,100 and £1,700 for an average pub; but layout plans can add an extra £500 to £1,000, while training for personal licences costs around £150 per person.

Browne added that many boards are still not issuing licences and criticised the lack of transparency about how they planned to enforce the regime.

“There is a lot of uncertainty about how the boards will operate and they also have the power to determine their own fees which makes it impossible for the industry to know what is acceptable,” he said.

Debbie Taylor, chairman of BHA Scotland, said it is likely to be the smaller businesses which will suffer most under the new licensing laws.

“It was a positive move for the Scottish executive to extend the deadline for licences to November and there will be benefits to training in the long term but smaller businesses without the funds and resources may not even bother to renew their licences,” she warned.

David Elphick, training manager for licensing solicitors Poppleston Allen described the situation as “Armageddon” and anticipated that over 10% of premises selling alcohol will cease to do so as the act comes into force.

“Every single member of staff involved in the sale of alcohol has to be trained and a lot of premises just aren’t prepared. The legislation requires premises to have a duty manager at all times but what if he or she is sick? One of my clients in Edinburgh is a large hotel which needs 200-300 staff just for the festival month. Every one of those temporary workers has to be trained,” he said.

Elphick also questioned the “public health” licensing objective, which entitles anybody to call for the review of a pub. “If somebody gets drunk, anybody can call the licensing board for the pub to be reviewed which will cost the licensee more money,” he added.


Scottish justice secretary under fire for untimely holiday >>

Scottish pubs given two months' leeway on new licences >>

Trade body pleads for moratorium on new Scottish licensing laws >>


By Emma White

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