Cornwall Council tasked with 'simplifying licensing system'!

Cornwall Council has been awarded grant funding from the Better Regulation Delivery Office to examine how the licensing system in England can be simplified with the aim of creating a single business licence.

The Council has been chosen to carry out a pathfinder project, the only one in England, to explore how the Local Government Association's Rewiring Licensing proposals can work in practice to create a new licensing blueprint.

The aim of this project is to examine what changes councils need to make for it to be possible for a single business licence to be issued on a licence-for-life basis; to simplify the process of setting up businesses and make it easier for businesses to work with councils.

The grant will give Cornwall Council the opportunity to map out existing licensing workflows and understand what changes would need to be made to deliver the objective of a single business licence.

The project is expected to take six months and will include mapping a typical set of activities for both start-up and established businesses.

The rewiring licensing report can be found here.

We would highlight that although the Licensing Act 2003 relates to both England and Wales the report deals only with England and even states that "Close consideration will need to be given to the requirements of the devolved administrations, and Wales in particular, as the proposals in this report are taken forward."

We will update you once the project is complete.