Licensing Act 2003 - Personal Licence

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Under the Licensing Act 2003, the sale and supply of alcohol must be made under the authority of a personal licence holder. A personal licence does not need to be associated with a particular premises, and a person can apply for a personal licence if they are not currently employed at a licensed premises.

Every premises that holds a licence authrising the sale of alcohol must have a Designated Premises Supervisor and only someone who holds a personal licence can be a Designated Premises Supervisor.

An application for a personal licence must be made to the Licensing Authority for the area where you normally reside. In exceptional circumstances Kingston can accept an application if the applicant is not ordinarily resident in any Authority in England or Wales.

You must be aged 18 years or older to apply for a personal licence.

Application forms

The application must be made on the specific forms which are set by law. and can be downloaded below. Two forms must be completed, an application form and a disclosure of convictions form.

In addition, your application must be acoompanied by:

• Application fee of £37.  Payment accepted by cash, or cheques or Postal Orders made payable to “Kingston Council”.
• Two photographs in the following form:
  • taken against a light background so that the applicant’s features are distinguishable and contrast against the background
  • 45 millimetres by 35 millimetres·(passport size) full face uncovered and without sunglasses and, unless you wear a head covering in connection with your religious beliefs, the photo must show you without a head covering
  • on photographic paper;
  • one of the photographs must be endorsed, with a statement verifying the likeness of the photograph to the applicant, by (i) the chief executive of the licensing justices for the relevant licensing authority,(ii) a solicitor or notary, (iii) a person of standing in the community i.e. bank or building society official, (iii) a police officer, a civil servant or a minister of religion, or (iv) an individual with a professional qualification.
• A certificate demonstrating you have completed and passed an accredited personal licence qualification.  The qualifications currently recognised are given in the document avialble to download below.
• One of the following certificates giving proof of your cirminal record:
  • a criminal conviction certificate issued under section 112 of the Police Act 1997(a)
  • a criminal record certificate issued under section 113A of the Police Act 1997, or
  • the results of a subject access search under the Data Protection Act 1998(b) of the Police National Computer by the National Identification Service.

Any certificate, or search results, submitted with an application must have been issued within a month prior to the date of making the application. Basic criminal record disclosure certificates can be obtained from Disclosure Scotland, www.disclosurescotland.co.uk, telephone 0870 609 6006.

Determination of an application

The Council will grant a new personal licence if it is satisfied that the applicant is over 18 years, possesses a recognised licensing qualification, has not had a personal licence forfeited in the previous five years and has not been convicted of relevant or foreign offences.

If an applicant has been convicted of relevant or foreign offences then the Council will notify the police. The police will then decide, within 14 days, whether or not there is a need to object.

If the police decide to make an objection the Council will hold a hearing to consider the objection.  The authority must reject the application if they consider it necessary for the promotion of crime prevention, otherwise the licence will be granted

Where an application is rejected the applicant may appeal and equally, where an application is granted contrary to a police objection, the police may appeal.

An appeal must be made to the magistrates’ court and notice of appeal must be given to the magistrates within 21 days beginning the day on which the appellant was notified by the Council.

Form of personal licence

Any licence granted will take effect immediately and will be granted for a period of 10 years from the date of grant.

A personal licence takes the form of two separate parts, namely:

• Part 1: a credit card size document containing the holder’s name and address, the name of the issuing Authority, a photograph of the holder, a unique licence number, and the date of expiry.
• Part 2: a certificate, containing a record of any relevant or foreign offences that the holder has been convicted, the date of each conviction and the sentence received. This part also contains all the details contained in part 1 above, except the photograph .