Scotland - liquor licensing statistics 2014-15

Every year the Scottish Government releases liquor licensing statistics and those for 2014-15 have just been issued and can be found here: Crime and Justice - Publications - Liquor Licensing in Scotland.

The figures show certain details relating to premises and personal licences across Scotland but with an individual breakdown for each individual Licensing Board. The statistics of greatest note are as follows.

Premises Licences – national statistics

• Premises licences in force as of 31 March 2015:
• 16,663
• 5,096 of which off sales only (i.e. 30.58%)
• Applications received during 2014-15:
• 438
• of which on sales: 258 (58.9%); and
• off sales only: 180 (41.1%)
• applications refused: 15
• applications granted: 435
• Review application outcomes:
• Written warning: 28
• Variation: 19
• Suspension: 24
• Revocation: 44
• No action: 73
• Occasional licences granted during 2014-15:
• 22,801

Personal Licences – national statistics

• Personal licences in force as of 31 March 2015:
• 50,263
• Applications made during 2014-15:
• Refused: 22
• Granted: 6,924
• Notice of conviction hearing outcomes:
• Endorsement: 8
• Suspension: 1
• Revocation: 1
• No action: 18
• Conduct inconsistent with licensing objectives hearing outcomes:
• Endorsement: 20
• Suspension: 4
• Revocation: 12
• No action: 12
• Revocations during 2014-15 due to failure to provide evidence of having undertaken refresher training:
• 11,284 

By our calculation, a staggering 99.9% of personal licence revocations in 2014-15 were due to the failure of personal licence holders to obtain and provide evidence of the required refresher training – something which was feared and stressed time and time again by us.

Now that the prohibition on re-applying for a personal licence for 5 years has been lifted in respect of a revocation for failure to evidence refresher training, it would be expected that a surge of personal licence applications will be made during 2015-16.