The Licensing Act 2003 Statement Of Licensing Policy January 2021

The Act provides a system of permitted temporary activities, under which licensable activities can be carried out on a temporary basis without the need for a premises licence or club premises certificate.

The event must be notified to the licensing authority, the Police and Environmental Health with a minimum of 10 working days before the event and preferably 28 days beforehand. Late notices can be given no later than 5 working days but no earlier than 9 working days before the event.

These events are subject to various limitations concerned with:

• duration - they are limited to 168 hours (7 days) with a minimum of 24 hours between successive events
• scale - they cannot involve the presence of more than 499 people at any one time
• use of the same premises - the same premise cannot be used more than 12 times or 21 days per year
• the number of notices given by one individual - a personal licence holder is limited to 50 notices per year, including up to 10 late notices, and an ordinary person up to 5 notices per year, including 2 late notices

Outside of these limitations, a full premise licence or club premises certificate would be required for the period of the event involved.

One of the most important aspects of the system of temporary event notices is that no permission is required for these events from the licensing authority. In general, only the Police and Environmental Health may intervene, where the event undermines any of the licensing objectives, in order to prevent such an event taking place or to modify the arrangements for such an event. The licensing authority will only ever intervene itself, if the limits on the number of notices that may be given in various circumstances would be exceeded.

Given the possibility of Police and Environmental Health intervention, event organisers are encouraged not to rely on giving the minimum amount of notice and to contact local Police Licensing Officers and Environmental Health Officers at the earliest opportunity to discuss their proposals.

Where the notice is in order, the fee prescribed by the Secretary of State paid, the event falls within the limitations in the Act and there has been no Police or Environmental Health intervention, the Council will record the notice in its register and send an acknowledgement to the premises user.

Many people giving temporary event notices will not have commercial backgrounds or ready access to legal advice. They will include, for example, people acting on behalf of charities, community and voluntary groups, schools, churches and hospitals, all of which may stage public events to raise funding at which licensable activities will take place. The Council will ensure that guidance about the temporary permitted activities is clear and understandable and will strive to keep the arrangements manageable and user-friendly for these groups. Guidance can be found on the Council's website.

Events on Council Land

The Council wishes to encourage cultural and community events in the Borough. In accordance with the provisions of the Act, the Council has made applications and been granted premises licences for areas of public land. These areas include Stockton High Street, Riverside Park, Parish Gardens, Trinity Gardens, Tees Barrage, Ropner Park and Preston Park.

With regard to these places, performers and entertainers will not need to obtain a licence or give a temporary event notice themselves in order to perform. Instead they would require permission from the Council as the premise licence holder. Any charges related to this permission will be reasonable and proportionate.

The Council may require that the Independent Safety Advisory Group consider any safety issues. A safety event manual must always be produced by the event organiser and must incorporate an operating schedule, risk assessments and address any safety issues before the Council allows the use of its licence.