Scotland - personal licences - 'fit and proper'

We have been alerted to a recent Sheriff Court decision (thank you Scott Blair, Terra Firma Chambers) which seems to show that the discretion of the Board on a personal licence application is broad and that a Board is permitted to draw reasonable inferences from the information placed before it.

We will not burden you with the detail but it all centred on cannabis cultivation and the likely knowledge the applicant was likely to have of this, in close proximity to where she resided.  The Board were right to refuse her Personal licence for the purposes of preventing crime and disorder and securing public safety.

‘The appropriate test is to consider whether a reasonable Board, rather than a reasonable person, would have reached the view adopted by the Board to this application’.

We can provide further detail if of interest.

Kirstie Jardine v North Lanarkshire Licensing Board - 3 April 2017