Scotland - Personal Licence Renewal

A discussion around the steps to facilitate the requirement to renew Personal Licences on the 10^th anniversary pursuant to the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 continues and the concerns of the trade as to the mechanics of the process increase as each week goes by and no way forward is announced.

Within a Scottish Government review document there is perhaps a hint as to how the situation will be dealt with.

The review makes a distinction between two parts of the legislation.  The first is to comply with the ongoing training requirements and the second to renew at the 10 year point.

The training requirement requires refresher training to be undertaken for those who were granted their licences in September 2009, as part of the first wave, by 1^st September, 2019 and for evidence of such training to be submitted to the relevant Licensing Board by 1^st December, 2019.  The renewal requirement is different in that it stipulates that the applicant for renewal must possess a licensing qualification which does not necessarily mean that they have complied with the ongoing training requirements thus it appears there is potential for, on renewal, the applicant to submit in support of that application the Scottish Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (refresher) secured by them four years prior.

This would mean the taking of the “qualification” as yet to be determined as appropriate for those persons who held the Licence for 10 years may not need to be undertaken as quickly as initially believed.

We now all eagerly await Scottish Government definitive announcements on how they interpret  these requirements.  It appears that an option to do away with renewals altogether, as in England and Wales is not realistic, there being insufficient statutory time to achieve the same or any evidence of an appetite by the Sottish Government to do so.