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• 
  Advisor to Channel 4's Country House Rescue

New Scottish Licensing Act

Advice to properties  from the Scottish Tourism Forum:
The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 will come into force on 1 September 2009. It is estimated that there are many thousands of establishments that have not yet fully understood the Act’s impact.

Any establishment that does not have a personal licence holder nominated as a designated premises manager (DPM) and ntoed on their premises licence – all by 31 August – will not be able to serve alcohol after that date. Establishments will not be able to sell alcohol after 31 August, 2009 unless:

• The premises licence or certified copy is on the premises
• The summary of the premises licence is on prominent display on the premises
• The premises licence has the name of the Designated Premises Manager (DPM) on it.
• To be DPM, that person must have:
• • passed the relevant 2005 Act training
  • had the training certificate granted
  • applied to the licensing board where they reside for a personal licence.  Only after the personal licence has been received from the board can the person apply to be designated a DPM
• In addition, if the DPM is not on the premises licence by 1 December 2009, the licence is revoked. There is no appeal mechanism. If revoked, it is likely to take 4/6 months to apply for a new premises licence (which will be costly) and the application will be subject to an overprovision assessemnt; any person anywhere can object to the application.

Some boards have already indicated that unless they receive personal licence applications before the end of June, they will be unlikely to be able to process the applications in time. In that event, the premises will not be able to serve alcohol after 31 August.