Scotland – Personal Licence Renewals update

The Scottish Government has just issued the ‘The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 – Personal Licence Holder Communications Document’. In brief, this is a communications document relating to personal licence holders and the requirement to both undertake refresher training and renew personal licences.

The first tranche of personal licences granted will expire on 1 September 2019. The important dates for these personal licence holders are as follows:

• 31 August 2018 – first date that the licence can be renewed;
• 31 May 2019 – deadline for submitting personal licence renewal; and
• 1 September 2019 – expiry date (for personal licences grated up to 1 September 2009).

However, not only must personal licences be renewed every 10 years (no later than 3 months before the expiry date), refresher training must be undertaken every 5 years and the training certificate filed with the relevant Licensing Board.

The Scottish Government is therefore recommending that these processes should be dealt with at the same time with the communications document stating that the “…currently available half-day refresher training course is the appropriate course to take for both the requirement to undertake updated refresher training after five years and the requirement to apply to renew your licence”.

Importantly, even though SCPLH and SCPLH Refresher courses are in the process of being updated, the communications document states “…there is no need for Personal Licence Holders to wait for the new courses to be available. Certificates from existing courses will be acceptable for the five year refresh and ten year licence renewal.”

Forms and fees

The communications document states that “The renewal form is the standard personal licence application form, available on your Licensing Board’s website. There are relevant sections to complete if your application is a renewal. A training certificate must accompany the application.”

The renewal fee has yet to be determined but the Scottish Government is currently consulting on setting a £50 fee (which consultation closes 15 August 2018).

Personal licence holders will need to be alert to the above and are advised to seek to book themselves onto an appropriate Refresher course as soon as practicable as the demand for places in early 2019 is likely to be high.