Late Night Levy Briefing Paper Issued

A New House of Commons Briefing paper has just been issued on the Late Night Levy. It incorporates information regarding both proposed reforms to the Levy and the recent Lords Committee criticism of the Levy.

This is now the fourth Alcohol related paper released in the last few weeks, which we would suggest shows what an important topic the industry and its regulation remains.

The power to introduce a Late Night Levy came through the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011.

As a reminder The levy is a discretionary power enabling licensing authorities in England and Wales to raise a contribution towards policing the late-night economy from holders of premises licences or club premises certificates. The levy must at present cover the whole of the licensing authority’s area. The licensing authority chooses the period during which the levy applies every night, between midnight and 6am.

The amount of the levy is prescribed nationally and is based on the current licence fee system under the Licensing Act 2003, with holders being placed in bands based on their premises rateable value.

At least 70% of the net revenue must be given to the police but with no restriction on how the funds are used by the police. The licensing authority can retain up to 30% to fund the services it provides to manage the night-time economy.

Powers not yet in force under The Policing and Crime Act 2017 would reform the levy by:

• allowing licensing authorities to target specific geographical locations;
• extending the levy to include late night refreshment outlets;
• enabling PCCs to request the licensing authority to propose introducing a levy; and
• requiring licensing authorities to publish information about how funds raised by the levy are spent.

However, you will have read in our recent news on the House of Lords Select Committee Report ( April 2017) that there was criticism of the Levy.

The Committee concluded that the levy has failed to achieve its objectives and should be abolished. However it also recognised that the Government’s amendments “may stand some chance of successfully reforming the levy”.

We noted to you, that the Government has said it will not implement its levy reforms until, it has considered and responded to the Select Committee’s report.

The Paper refers to the law in England and Wales and can be found here: 'The Late Night Levy'