Latest News
Gaming - Local Risk Assessments go live 6th April 2016
With effect from 6th April 2016 the updated social responsibility code 10.1.1. will take effect which reads: Licensees must assess the local risks to the licensing objectives posed by the provision of gambling facilities at each of their premises...
Pump and Boneyard, Shoreditch - appeal
Philip Kolvin QC (Cornerstone Barristers) has kindly alerted us to this interesting case on which he was involved. The facts of the case read a bit like a best-selling novel but the decision before the magistrates last week on appeal was also reve...
Essence Bars (London) Ltd (or was it?!) -v- Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames - an Appeal Court decision
On Tuesday (3/2/16) the Court of Appeal published their judgment following a hearing and submission in December. The case concerned an Appeal against a decision of Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (‘the Licensing Authority’...
PPL and PRS to 'combine'?
PRS for Music and PPL have announced a proposal to create a new joint venture company to handle all public performance licensing for the UK. The two licences currently required by businesses playing music in public – one from PRS for the us...
Scotland - Gambling - Commission Warning to Scottish Pubs
Publicans in Scotland are being reminded that they are breaking the law if they allow their pubs to be used for betting or provide facilities enabling betting. This warning follows a multi-agency exercise undertaken by the Gambling Commissi...
Wales - Vaping indoors concerns
At a recent meeting of the Welsh Assembly's Health and Social Care Committee, the difference in impact and harm of e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes was discussed. The Health Minister (Mark Drakeford) argued that ‘vaping’ was dif...
Health and Safety Offences, Corporate Manslaughter and Food Safety and Hygiene Offences - Definitive Sentencing Guideline updated
New revised guidelines from the Sentencing Council came into force on 1 February 2016 with the result that likely penalties are likely to be significantly more punitive of employers and more expensive, as a business's turnover will be taken into a...