Covid 19 - What you need to know – Local Government Association call for more powers

The Local Government Association (‘LGA’) has called for additional powers to compel licensed premises to comply with Covid-19 guidance, especially social distancing.

The LGA are seeking a change to the law requiring licensed premises to be required to follow government guidance. At the moment government guidance is not ‘the law’ but must be considered by trading premises when preparing operating plans / risk assessments for their premises. Guidance cannot be ‘one size fits all’ and the challenges arising from physical factors, differ from premises to premises.

The LGA state “most licensed premises are working hard to ensure they comply with the guidance but councils have concerns that some premises are not collecting contact details of customers so they can be reached in the event of a local outbreak.” Enforcing these requirements is proving to be a concern for the LGA who would prefer “sanctions available under the Licensing Act – such as requiring a business to apply new conditions to operate safely, or in the worst cases revoking a licence“ they consider these powers “would be better suited to preventing the risk of infection spreading than the tools available under health and safety laws.”

We shall keep you updated.