Downing Street Says » Licensing Laws

» Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Licensing Laws

Asked for a reminder on the Government’s position on 24-hour drinking the PMOS reminded journalists that it was not 24-hour drinking, but flexible closing times. The reason for the proposed changes to licensing laws was that fixed closing times had resulted in problems. He reminded journalists that Chris Fox, president of ACPO, had said in October 2004 that 24-hour licensing was not the issue. What people wanted was the ability to stagger closing times to deal with the problems of fixed closing times at the same time as dealing with pubs that had caused problems. That was what the new legislation provided for. If there were problems in a particular area, then the local authority could now deal with those problems.

Asked if any Ministerial orders were needed to bring the legislation into force the PMOS asked journalists to check with the Department for Culture Media and Sport. Put to him that laws were surely already in place for local licensing authorities to shut down troublesome pubs the PMOS said that the new licensing act gave particular powers to local authorities to close problem premises, change licence conditions and impose stronger penalties on those who sold alcohol to children.

Asked about when exactly these powers would take effect the PMOS said he would check the precise details.

2 Comments »

What are the current licensing laws?
Comment by Nicola Linforth — 28 Mar 2005 on 2:43 pm | Link
I don’t whether ‘people’ (who?) do actually want to stagger closing times, but what usually gets me into trouble is the staggering after closing times.
Comment by Chuck Unsworth — 29 Mar 2005 on 10:27 am | Link

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Post a public comment

Name (required)
E-mail (required)
(You must give an email address, but it will not be displayed to the public.)
Website
(You may give your website, and it will be displayed to the public.)

Comments:

This is not a way of contacting the Prime Minister. If you would like to contact the Prime Minister, go to the 10 Downing Street official site.

Privacy note: Shortly after posting, your name and comment will be displayed on the site. This means that people searching for your name on the Internet will be able to find and read your comment.

Original PMOS briefings are © Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Click-use licence number C02W0004089. Material is reproduced from the original 10 Downing Street source, but may not be the most up-to-date version of the briefings, which might be revised at the original source. Users should check with the original source in case of revisions. Comments are © Copyright contributors. Everything else is © Copyright Downing Street Says.