Consultation: The relaxation of licensing hours during the FIFA World Cup 2014

Following the recent apparent Government ‘about turn’ over the issue of World Cup extensions a consultation has just been launched as to  whether to relax licensing hours during England’s matches in the World Cup 2014. The consultation is short and expires at 11:45pm on 26 March 2014.

The consultation seeks views on whether or not the Temporary Event Notice (TENs) system should be used to determine licensing hours locally during the World Cup or whether there should be a national relaxation of licensing hours for all England matches during the World Cup. This would apply to all England matches with a scheduled kick-off time of 8pm or later.

The Government has apparently decided that, were it to decide to relax licensing hours nationally following the consultation, this would relate to the sale of alcohol for consumption on the premises only and the provision of late-night refreshment in on-trade licensed premises. The purpose of any national relaxation of licensing hours during the World Cup would be to enable all pubs and other on-trade premises to sell alcohol and late night refreshment to people watching England’s World Cup matches live. Any relaxation would therefore not cover regulated entertainment as this relaxation would be in the context of the World Cup.

The consultation goes on to state:

‘The consultation asks for views on how long licensing hours should be relaxed during England’s matches in the World Cup. The options presented in the consultation seek to enable pubs and other on-trade premises to sell alcohol and late night refreshment throughout the duration of live England matches whilst balancing concerns about public order. Licensing hours will not be relaxed beyond 1am for any of the matches, including England’s opening game which is due to kick-off at 11pm. The consultation asks whether licensing hours should be relaxed for three, three and a half or four hours after kick off (e.g. so that matches which kick-off at 9pm could be extended until 12 midnight, 12.30am or 1am). This allows for a minimum of three hours of playing time (including 30 minutes for extra time and 20 minutes for penalties). The Government believes this is a reasonable length of time to allow for the duration of matches. After these licensed hours, premises would not be able to sell alcohol or late-night refreshment under the licensing hours order. However, premises may be able to allow customers to remain on the premises beyond these hours and could give a TEN if they wished to open later.’

There is also a geographical question as to whether any national relaxation should apply to England and Wales or England only.

The full consultation can be found HERE

Operators interested in extended hours for later England matches are encouraged to respond.  It is possible to respond on line HERE