Scotland - Air Weapon and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015 - Received Royal Assent

On 4^th August 2015, the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015 received Royal Assent becoming law. As is common with extensive Acts such as this, not all parts of the Act take immediate effect and a series of Commencement Orders will follow determining when certain sections take effect, these are expected to start arriving in the Autumn.

The Act includes the creation of new offences of giving, or making available, alcohol to a child or young person for consumption in a public place, introduces a new licensing regime for lap dancing venues allowing greater control over their number and operation and creates a new role of Civic Licensing Standards Officer to help enforce civic licensing regimes.

For more detail and an overview of the licensing provisions as proposed, see our previous article - 'Scotland - Significant changes to the Licensing Act (Scotland) 2005 tabled'.

One measure which takes immediate effect, and will be most widely welcomed, is the removal of the current 5 years prohibition on personal licence holders reapplying for their personal licences if they forfeited them after failing to comply with refresher training requirements, which caught out many last year.

Those who have forfeited their licence are now able to reapply immediately for a new licence and are no longer required to wait 5 years.

We shall keep you updated regarding the commencement of other noteworthy sections.