The Highland Licensing Board Agenda 10 Item Meeting – 26 June 2018 Report HLB/078/18 No Highland Licensing Board Consultation Draft Policy Statement 2018-2023 Report by the Clerk to the Licensing Board Summary This report invites the Board to agree the terms of a draft policy statement 2018- 2023 to be published for consultation. 1. Background 1.1 On 27 March 2018 the Board agreed its timetable for preparation of its next statement of licensing policy which will apply from 4 November 2018 to 3 November 2023. 1.2 The first stage in this process was the initial evidence-gathering exercise, where various parties were invited to submit relevant evidence to inform the preparation of a consultation draft statement. This has now been completed and a proposed consultation draft prepared by the Clerk is attached at Appendix 1. 1.3 The principal submission received was from the Directorate of Public Health and Health Policy, NHS Highland, May 2018. This focuses on evidence related to the assessment of overprovision of licensed premises in the Board’s area and is attached at Appendix 2. It concludes with a recommendation that the Board consider four separate options put forward by NHS Highland in respect of the Board’s overprovision policy. 1.4 A number of submissions were also received from the Highland Licensing Forum, inviting the Board to consider amending or adding various policies and supplementary guidance into the policy statement. These submissions are attached at Appendix 3 and relate to: • Broadening the children’s and young persons’ access policies to allow children aged 12 and over unaccompanied access to licensed premises at premises which have no bar counter and are purely food-led • Tightening up the occasional licence policy in relation to premises with provisional licences which are not yet confirmed • Adding additional best practice advice to voluntary organisations and their use of occasional licences • Adding an additional requirement for outdoor events that staff training records be available at the event for inspection, and • Providing greater clarity on policy hours for distilleries and alcohol producers which are visitor attractions, and for specialist off-sales premises, which provide tutored tasting or sampling sessions All of the Forum’s suggestions have been incorporated into the draft statement attached. They largely reflect what the Board’s own practice in recent years has been and also meet certain concerns which the Council’s Licensing Standards Officers and the Clerk have had themselves in recent years. 1.5 Also attached are lists of the licensed on sales and off sales premises in each of the Council wards, together with details of their capacities. Appendix 4 lists on sales premises and Appendix 5 the off sales premises. (See separate A3 booklet). In terms of section 7 of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, which sets out the duty to assess overprovision, the Board must have regard to the number and capacity of licensed premises in particular localities, or in the Board’s area as a whole, when undertaking its overprovision assessment. Members are accordingly asked to consider these lists, and the numbers and capacities information contained within them, in detail when considering what they wish to propose as their consultation draft policy statement. 2. Proposed consultation draft statement 2.1 The Board’s current Licensing Policy Statement 2013-18 and Supplementary Policy Statement on extended hours is available to view at https://www.highland.gov.uk/info/1126/licences_- _alcohol/729/licensing_meetings_and_policies/4 2.2 The proposed consultation draft statement takes the current policy statement as its basis, but contains various changes, updates and additions. Many of the changes are simply improvements to wording or layout. Some are proposed substantive changes, however, and these are summarised below. 2.3 Section 1 – Introduction This section has been updated to include current population figures in main settlements and current premises licence numbers. Additional sections have also been added to explain the Board’s additional reporting functions introduced in 2017 and 2018. Updated links to the Board’s current equality strategy and publication scheme have also been included together with a link to the guidance for completing a disabled access and facilities statement, as required since April this year. 2.4 Section 2 – Policies Section 2.1 sets out the Board’s policies on premises licence core hours. The wording of the section on “Food-led operations” has been amended to better reflect what has been the Board’s practice in recent years. Additional sections on hours at distilleries and other premises where alcohol is produced and at specialist off sales premises have been added in response to the Forum’s request. These too largely reflect what has been the Board’s practice in recent years. Section 2.2 sets out the Board’s policies on granting extended hours in licensed premises either (a) for special events or occasions to be catered for on the premises, or (b) for special events of local or national significance. The terms of the Board’s Supplementary Licensing Policy Statement on extended hours for special events of local or national significance, adopted in May 2015, has been incorporated into the text. Section 2.4 sets out the Board’s policies on granting occasional licences at premises where no premises licence is in effect. An additional policy has been included setting out additional requirements for occasional licence applicants at premises which hold a provisional premises licence but where no confirmation has as yet been obtained. This is to allow the Board to verify that, although not yet ready for confirmation of the provisional licence, the premises are nonetheless in a suitable condition for the sale of alcohol without risk to the safety of customers frequenting it. While this addition was requested by the Forum, it has also been a matter of recent concern for the Licensing Standards Officers and the Clerk. Separately, an additional local condition has been included requiring a copy of staff training records to be made available at the site during outdoor events. This too has been included at the Forum’s request and is aimed at assisting Police Scotland and the LSOs when conducting licensing checks at such events. Again at the request of the Forum, a section has been added encouraging voluntary organisations which regularly use up their full quota of occasional licences, often for fund raising events, to arrange for one of their members to undertake personal licence holder training and obtain a personal licence. This would allow the organisation to arrange, through their personal licence holder, as many events in the year as they wish. Section 2.5 sets out the Board’s policies in relation to access to licensed premises by children and young persons. An additional policy has been added to this to allow the Board to permit access to appropriate licensed premises by children aged 12 or over unaccompanied by an adult. Appropriate premises in this regard would be food-led premises which have no bar counter. This too has been added at the request of the Forum in recognition of the growing trend in family and youth-friendly restaurants, many of which are a perfectly safe environment for children of secondary school age and above to enter unaccompanied to buy food and soft drinks. Section 2.13 sets out the Board’s current overprovision policy and the background to it. The section on the Board’s 2013 overprovision assessment has been retained by way of full background, and a new section “The 2018 overprovision assessment” has been added. In this new section, brief information taken from the NHS Highland submission (Appendix 2) has been included by way of update but no definite policy has been proposed. Instead, the four options put forward by NHS Highland have been listed, so that through the consultation on the draft statement, the Board may obtain the full views of the Forum and others, including members of the public and the members of the licensed trade themselves, on each of these four options before considering any final overprovision policy they wish to adopt later in the year. If members wish to add any further options on which to consult, it is open to the Board to agree to add these to the consultation draft statement. 3.0 Procedure 3.1 Before the Board agrees the terms of the Board’s consultation draft policy statement, those who have contributed to the evidence gathering process will be invited to address the Board. 3.2 Thereafter, members will be invited to debate the terms of the consultation draft, bearing in mind, however, that at this stage the Board is merely putting forward proposals or options they wish to put out to consultation. No final view should be taken on the content of the policy statement until after the full consultation process has taken place. During debate, members are free to propose changes to the proposed draft, including proposals for changing existing policies or adding new ones. 3.3 Once members have agreed the terms of the consultation draft, this will be published along with a consultation response form, and disseminated as widely as possible. The consultation will remain open until the end of August 2018 and responses will be considered at a special meeting of the Board to be arranged for early October 2018 and at which the Board will also hear any further submissions which respondents may wish to make to the Board in person. 3.5 The Board will then consider and agree the final terms of its next policy statement for publication by 3 November 2018. Recommendation The Board is invited to agree the terms of its consultation draft licensing policy statement 2018-2023 after hearing from parties present.