Licensed trade in Highlands reminded of need for refresher training

21st February 2014

Members of the licensed trade in the Highlands are being reminded of the need to undergo refresher training to ensure they retain their personal licences - and the authority to sell alcohol on their premises.

Personal Licences are issued for a period of 10 years. However, in terms of Section 87 of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, there is a legal requirement for personal licence holders to undertake refresher training within five years of the date of issue of their personal licence.

They then need to produce evidence of this training to the Highland Licensing Board, not later than three months after the expiry of the period of five years from when the personal licence was issued.

This means that anyone receiving a personal licence which was issued with effect from 1 September 2009, requires refresher training to be completed by 31 August 2014 with notification to the Board by 30 November 2014. Further advice can be found at www.scplh.info

Personal Licences with an issue date prior to 1 September, 2009 are classed as having been issued on 1 September 2009 as that is when the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 came into “effect”.

If personal licence holders do not refresh their personal licence holder training within the specified period, the Board must revoke the personal licence. The consequences of the revocation could include being no longer permitted to sell alcohol on their premises, unless appropriate steps are taken to name an alternative personal licence holder as the designated premises manager. In addition, personal licence holders, who have their licences revoked, will no longer be allowed to authorise sales of alcohol or conduct the mandatory staff training.

Reminders will be sent but if a personal licence holder has not advised the Licensing Board of a change of address he or she might not be aware of the requirement to undergo refresher training and risk having their personal licence revoked.

Licensing Board Convener, Maxine Smith, said: “It is vital that personal licence holders undertake the refresher training and do so on time as any revocation of the personal licence will be immediate and irrevocable. Personal licence holders who have moved address without advising the Board are of great concern as they will not receive a reminder.”