By Gillian McKenzie
THE deadline by which the first batch of personal licence holders had to complete refresher training passed on Sunday (August 31).
And as many predicted, the story is far from over.
The PLHs who successfully completed the course in time are by no means out of the woods yet.
They must notify their board by November 30 that they have completed the training and obtained the certificate. And quite how they go about that appears to vary wildly between licensing boards.
It seems some require the original licence with a copy of the training certificate and an accompanying form, while others don’t require the licence or a form but want the original version of the training certificate.
The Scottish Government attempted to create a uniform approach, publishing the Personal Licence (Training) Regulations last year; the document states that evidence must consist of the original or a copy of the refresher certificate, along with the PLH’s name, address, date of birth and licence number.
However, the Licensing Act itself states that when a board receives evidence of training, it must amend the personal licence to include details of the training, implying that boards
may require the personal licence too.
Confused? It’s no wonder.
Don’t get me wrong, it is important that boards have the ability to tailor certain policies and approaches to suit their local area.
But such inconsistency on so many aspects of licensing does nothing to help the trade.
