Consultation outcome

Licensing Act 2003: regulatory easements

• From: Home Office
• Published: 6 March 2023
• Last updated: 15 August 2023 — See all updates

This was published under the 2022 to 2024 Sunak Conservative government

Applies to England and Wales

This consultation has concluded

Read the full outcome

Licensing Act 2003: regulatory easements consultation responses

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Detail of outcome

We have considered the responses and our findings are in the attached report.

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Original consultation

Summary

We are consulting on whether there is support for making permanent the alcohol licensing provisions in the Business and Planning Act 2020 or whether to return to the provisions in the Licensing Act 2003.

This consultation ran from
1pm on 6 March 2023 to 11:59pm on 1 May 2023

Consultation description

The Licensing Act 2003 allows premises licence holders to sell alcohol for consumption on-site or for consumption off-site or both. In response to the pandemic, the Business and Planning Act 2020 provided regulatory easements which enabled holders of licences that only allow sales for consumption on-site to automatically additionally do sales for consumption off-site, without any need to amend their licence.

The Licensing Act 2003 also allows licensable activities to be carried out on a one-off basis without the need for a premises licence or any other authorisation, by means of a temporary event notice.  Provisions in the Business and Planning Act temporarily increased the annual number of temporary event notices that a licensed premise user can have per year.

The consultation is aimed at the hospitality sector, local licensing authorities, the police, licensed premises, members of the public and other interested parties in England and Wales where these proposals apply.

The consultation will run for 8 weeks.

Documents

Consultation: Licensing Act 2003: regulatory easements (accessible)

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Consultation: Licensing Act 2003: regulatory easements

PDF, 281 KB, 15 pages

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Impact assessment: Alcohol licensing regulatory easements: off-sales and temporary events notices (accessible)

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Impact assessment: Alcohol licensing regulatory easements: off-sales and temporary events notices

PDF, 444 KB, 26 pages

This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.

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Published 6 March 2023
Last updated 15 August 2023 + show all updates

1. 15 August 2023

   'Next steps' section in full outcome document updated with latest policy.

2. 12 August 2023

   'Next steps' section in full outcome document updated pending policy change.

3. 20 July 2023

   Consultation outcome published.

4. 6 March 2023

   First published.