Hospitality glossary · Compliance and safety
A premises licence authorises a specific building to carry out licensable activities such as selling alcohol, providing late-night refreshment or putting on regulated entertainment, under the Licensing Act 2003 in England and Wales.
In practice
Definitions are easy. What matters is how the thing behaves in a real operation, and where it tends to go wrong.
It attaches to the site rather than to a person, and where alcohol is sold it must name a Designated Premises Supervisor who holds a personal licence. What usually governs day-to-day operation is not the licence itself but the conditions on it and the operating schedule behind them: hours, capacity, door supervision, CCTV, noise management and dispersal. Scotland runs a separate regime under its own 2005 Act.
Managing the site without the licence and its conditions being known to the people on shift. Duty managers who have never read them cannot follow them, and breaches turn up through complaints, a police visit or a review — at which point the conditions get tighter rather than the mistake getting forgiven.
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 premises licence authorises a specific building to carry out licensable activities such as selling alcohol, providing late-night refreshment or putting on regulated entertainment, under the Licensing Act 2003 in England and Wales. It attaches to the site rather than to a person, and where alcohol is sold it must name a Designated Premises Supervisor who holds a personal licence. What usually governs day-to-day operation is not the licence itself but the conditions on it and the operating schedule behind them: hours, capacity, door supervision, CCTV, noise management and dispersal. Scotland runs a separate regime under its own 2005 Act.
Managing the site without the licence and its conditions being known to the people on shift. Duty managers who have never read them cannot follow them, and breaches turn up through complaints, a police visit or a review — at which point the conditions get tighter rather than the mistake getting forgiven.
WHY Hospitality