Licensing Hours Extensions Bill

In December 2023, the Licensing Hours Extensions Bill had its first reading in the House of Commons. Earlier this month it had its third reading in the Commons followed by its first reading in the House of Lords.

As per the Government overview of the Bill it “will amend the Licensing Act 2003 so that licensing hours orders can be made by negative resolution statutory instrument instead of requiring the affirmative procedure. This will apply to England and Wales. This will make it easier to extend licensing hours in England and Wales if, for example, a UK sports teams reaches a major final and the Government wants to extend licensing hours at short notice. This will also save valuable Parliamentary time.”

We have seen it recently reported that the next steps will be a general debate on all aspects of the bill on 14^th June 2024. However, with the dissolution of Parliament, this will not be the case. Unless the Bill was hurried through under ‘wash up’, which is not believed to be the case, then it will not be carried across to the next Parliament and so will need to be reintroduced in due course.

We will keep you apprised of any developments in this matter.