New figures show extent of refresher backlog across Scotland
LICENSING boards in some parts of Scotland have yet to receive notification of anyone completing personal licence holder refresher training.
New figures obtained by Scottish licensing law journal SLLP show some boards have yet to be informed by any of the personal licence holders facing the August 31 refresher training deadline that they have completed the course.
By law, anyone who received a personal licence on or before September 1, 2009 must have completed refresher training by August 31, 2014 and submit evidence of this to their relevant board no later than December 1; those who fail to comply will have their licence revoked and cannot apply for a new one for five years.
In Aberdeenshire, a total of 1300 personal licence holders across the Central, North and South divisional licensing board areas are facing the August 31 training deadline and the boards haven’t yet received any notifications of completed training; while Aberdeen city board confirmed it had received around 50 notifications of the 965 it is expecting.
Edinburgh licensing board said 90 people had notified it of having completed refresher training of the 1632 facing the August 31 deadline; Glasgow had recorded 200 out of 2700; and Dundee licensing board said it had received 14 notifications of an anticipated 669.
In Argyll & Bute, 20 of 920 PLHs have completed refresher training and informed the board; Orkney licensing board has received 13 notifications from a total of 230 licence holders who require to complete training by August 31; and the Highland board has received notifications from 206 of 1830 PLHs.
Perth & Kinross licensing board said 20 of 831 personal licence holders facing the August 31 deadline have notified it of completed refresher training, while the Scottish Borders board reported 39 notifications from a total of 673 PLHs.
SLLP editor, licensing lawyer and SLTN legal columnist Jack Cummins, said: “These numbers present a very challenging picture in terms of people on courses and paperwork moving through the system.
“Despite everyone’s efforts to highlight these deadlines, some people in the trade are sleepwalking towards disaster.”
