Councils remain unclear about the rules governing personal licences with just months to go before the new alcohol licensing regime takes effect in England and Wales.
Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) minister Lord McIntosh stated in January 2003 that personal licence holders could not realistically be expected to be
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The Grange hotel in Brampton,
Huntingdonshire, where owner and
sole licence holder Nick Steiger is
expected to be present whenever
alcohol is served
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on the premises at all times, but subsequent Government guidance has caused confusion.
Advice from the DCMS in its licensing newsletter in November last year didn't offer any clarity.
Although most councils have decided that an absent licence holder's written consent for the sale of alcohol will be sufficient, several councils are demanding a personal licence holder be present at all times when alcohol is sold.
Huntingdonshire hotelier Nick Steiger, who owns the seven-bedroom Grange hotel in Brampton and is its sole licence holder, told Caterer that his local council would require him to be there whenever alcohol was being served.
He said this means that he will have to put his staff through the personal licence exam if he wants to keep his business open while he takes a holiday.
Steiger, whose local council is Huntingdonshire, said: "My council has intimated to me that the law is unenforceable and they'll turn a blind eye, but that doesn't help me if I'm up the road when there's an incident. I won't have a defence. This interpretation is really going to hurt small operators."
The Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services, which is helping councils implement the new licensing act, believes Government guidance to date hasn't been clear enough but said it didn't think Huntingdonshire had got it right.
"We do not endorse this position, because the guidance is ambiguous, which means there can be no definitive answer," said a spokeswoman.
The British Hospitality Association described the guidance from the DCMS as wishy-washy. "In reference to the whole application licensing framework, it remains hard to know where we all stand," said a spokesman.
Calderwell Metropolitan Council in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and South Buckinghamshire District Council are also demanding personal licence holders are present for alcohol sales.
The DCMS has so far decided not to intervene. "Ultimately it will be up to the courts to decide this, but where there is alcohol being sold we want someone to be in charge," said a spokeswoman.
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 14 April 2005