Hospitality glossary · Compliance and safety
A designated premises supervisor, or DPS, is the person named on a premises licence who has day-to-day responsibility for a business that sells alcohol. They must hold a personal licence.
In practice
Definitions are easy. What matters is how the thing behaves in a real operation, and where it tends to go wrong.
Every business that sells or supplies alcohol needs one, except members' clubs and some community premises. The premises licence holder nominates the DPS, who signs a consent form, and they are named on the licence. Each premises has only one DPS, but one person can be the DPS for more than one site. They do not have to be on site all the time, but they must be contactable at all times, and they are the main contact for the council and the police.
Treating the DPS as a name on a form rather than a job someone has to be ready to do. The law says no alcohol can be sold under the licence at a time when there is no DPS, so if yours leaves without notice, alcohol sales have to stop until a new one is in place. Have a second personal licence holder ready to step in.
Questions
Something here that doesn’t match what you’re seeing in your own business? That is usually worth a conversation rather than another article.
A designated premises supervisor, or DPS, is the person named on a premises licence who has day-to-day responsibility for a business that sells alcohol. They must hold a personal licence. Every business that sells or supplies alcohol needs one, except members' clubs and some community premises. The premises licence holder nominates the DPS, who signs a consent form, and they are named on the licence. Each premises has only one DPS, but one person can be the DPS for more than one site. They do not have to be on site all the time, but they must be contactable at all times, and they are the main contact for the council and the police.
Treating the DPS as a name on a form rather than a job someone has to be ready to do. The law says no alcohol can be sold under the licence at a time when there is no DPS, so if yours leaves without notice, alcohol sales have to stop until a new one is in place. Have a second personal licence holder ready to step in.
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