Licensing

The Licensing Act 2003 came into force on 24 November 2005. All premises had to re-apply for a new licence to hold a licensable activity on the premises. Licensable activities include:
  • the retail sale of alcohol
  • the provision of regulated entertainment
  • the provision of late night refreshment

For one off occasions the act breaks down into large or small events defined as the attendance of more or less than 499 people. The following details concern the licensing of small events. Please contact us (details on Contact Us page) if you require advice on licensing for large events.

Licensing small events

Any event involving regulated entertainment and/or the serving of alcohol needs a premises licence.

Regulated entertainment includes:

  • performance of a play
  • showing of a film
  • sporting event
  • boxing/wrestling match
  • performance of live music
  • playing of recorded music
  • performance of dance

For the purposes of the Licensing Act 2003 “premises” means any place, not always in a building, and can include, for example, any private land, public park, recreation ground, beach and car park.

For any premises not fully licensed for the activities involved in your event a Temporary Event Notice (TEN) must be completed by the event organiser (the premises user), and sent to the local authority and the police. The premises can have a total of 12 TENs in one calendar year with an overall aggregated limit of 15 days (a TEN can last up to 96 hours). It is therefore extremely important to ascertain the details of any premises licence and the number of TENs granted to date before you book your venue.

We can either apply for a Temporary Event Notice for your function ourselves (for which there is a small fee), or assist you to make your own application.