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Licensing
We advise any business or individual on how to obtain food, beverage and entertainment licences whether for a one-off/ special occasion or for ongoing trade.
Where applications are disputed, we have strong advocacy skills and can manage appeals to the local Magistrates Court or to the High Court on your behalf.
As well as acting for licensees, we regularly act for the Police and Local Authorities in respect of licensing matters, subsequent appeals, and a wide range of regulatory matters.
Our licensing lawyers advise on:
- licensing applications and temporary event notices
- licensing club premises
- certificate applications and amendments
- personal licence applications
- entertainment venue licences
- personal Premises and Operating Licences under the Gambling Act 2005
- due diligence on property transactions including hotels, public houses and other licensed premises
- appeals to the local Magistrates Court
- appeals to the High Court via a judicial review
- licensing reviews and enforcement
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Licensing
Quality assured: Wright Hassall is Lexcel accredited, the Law Society’s legal practice quality mark for practice management and client care.
The *fee scale outlined below is calculated on the average cost of applying for a new premises licence (under Section 17 of the Licensing Act 2003), or to vary a licence (Section 34 of the Licensing Act 2003), to allow an ‘average’ business to carry out one or more licensable activities. In some circumstances, such as applying for a premises licence for a large, one-off, or unusual event, the fees outlined below will not be appropriate. In this case, we would supply a bespoke estimate.
Fees include:
- taking your instructions
- advising you how to promote the licensing objectives within your premises licence application
- advising on the type of plans required to accompany your application and the fee levels payable to the licensing authority
- completing and submitting the application along with suitable plans provided by you
- preparing the application and serving copies of it to the responsible authorities
- arranging for the advertising of the application (or variation) in the local media if applicable
- advising you on where the notice advertising the application needs to be displayed in compliance with the Licensing Act 2003
- providing a Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS) consent form for the personal licence holder to sign
- after the licence is granted, checking if for accuracy and amending if necessary with the licensing authority.
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Type of application (NB the fees below assume that you have the correct type of planning permission for the use of the premises) |
Fee scale (excluding 20% VAT) |
| Premises licence application or full variation | £1300 |
| Minor variation of premises licence application | £700 |
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The prices above do not take into account any costs payable to a third party which may include the following:
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| This will depend, largely, on the complexity of the matter. Providing you can supply all the necessary documents, a straightforward premises’ application or variation will take around a month; a minor variation will take less. A more complex application, or one that receives objections from other parties, will take longer. |
Exclusions
The fees outlined do not include:
- obtaining suitable plans
- attending pre-consultation meetings with the Licensing Authority or Responsible Authorities, nor their fee for this meeting.
- dealing with or advising you in relation to queries or representations received from either the responsible authorities or other interested parties
- advising on varying the licence
- attendance and representation at a licensing sub-committee hearing of the responsible authority. If representations are received and attendance and representation at a licensing sub-committee is required then we will provide a separate fee estimate for this work which will be charged at an hourly rate.
