by Gillian McKenzie
THE uptake of personal licence holder refresher training has been slow – that was the verdict from a number of training companies contacted by SLTN last week.
It’s a worrying observation – especially when time is running out for the first ‘batch’ of licence holders to take action.
Operators who gained their personal licence during the ‘transition’ to the 2005 Act (ie before September 1, 2009) must complete refresher training before September 1, 2014 (ie by August 31, 2014) and submit evidence of this to the relevant licensing board no later than December 1, 2014.
That means there’s only six months left for those who haven’t yet completed the required training to do so.
The consequences for operators who fail to comply in time are dire.
Their personal licence will be revoked and they cannot apply for a new one for five years.
If the operator is the named premises manager on the premises licence, the venue will have to stop selling alcohol until such time as another personal licence holder can be named; operators may also then have to be authorised by another licence holder to sell alcohol in their own premises.
With training firms predicting a last minute rush for places on refresher courses in the run up to the deadline, operators would do well to organise their training now.
The stakes are simply far too high.
