Home Secretary Updates Parliament in Sensitive Information in Licensing Applications
2023
On 19th December when the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, announced Martyn’s Law, she also set out her intention to introduce a Sensitive Information Protocol to be applied to Licensing Applications, which will be known as SILA.
The proposal is similar to a system already in place within planning legislation and has been made as part of the Government’s anti-terrorism Protect Duty. It will introduce a requirement for any licensing information which is deemed as sensitive to be exempt from view on any publicly accessible platform, such as online licensing registers.
Any exempt information will need to be made available upon request to try and reduce the risk of exposing any weaknesses at a premises, which terrorists or other criminals might wish to exploit.
The indication given By the Home Secretary in the announcement is that this will be implemented by amending the Licensing Act 2003 to reflect this protocol but no timescales or further detail has been given and we will update you as soon as we know more.