Deregulation Bill enters final stages

The Deregulation Bill completed its  third reading in the House of Lords last night (4^th March 2015). As we have been reporting, this Bill is of particular significance to the licensed trade as it includes provision for abolishing Personal Licence renewals. 

The issue is now critical as some personal licence have already reached their 10 year anniversary and many more will be due for renewal shortly.

Following the third reading the House of Lords have proposed some final amendments to the Bill. The provisions regarding Personal Licences are not, we understand, an issue.

The Bill will now be returned to the House of Commons on the 10^th March 2015 to either accept the amendments or propose their own and return to the House of Lords for a further (and hopefully final) debate on the 16^th March 2015.

Although in normal circumstance these debates are scheduled weeks or month apart, this back and forth can be accelerated where there is some approaching cut off point. In this instance the deadline is the end of the current Parliamentary session this phenomenon is referred to as ‘Ping Pong’ as the Bill bounces between the two houses.

We will continue to monitor the progress of the Bill.