Licences at risk on notifications

By Dave Hunter

• Pubs could shut if their premises managers lose their personal licences.
• Pubs could shut if their premises managers lose their personal licences.

First ‘batch’ of PLHs must notify boards of training

PERSONAL licence holders across Scotland have just days in which to act to prevent losing their licences.
Any personal licence holder (PLH) who received their licence on or before September 1, 2009 was required to complete a refresher course by August 31, and must notify their licensing board of the completed training by December 1. Those who fail to meet the deadline face losing their licence.
However, figures supplied by several licensing boards late last week show thousands of PLHs across Scotland are still to provide notification of completed training to their board.
South Ayrshire licensing board reported that, as of last week, 327 licence holders were still to inform it of completed training, while in the Highland region 667 licence holders were still to inform and in Glasgow 1480 notifications were still to be received.
A spokesman for the Glasgow board said premises managers who do not meet the December 1 deadline “will have up to six weeks to install a new premises manager or face closure”.
Training provider Steve Wadelik of Belendon Hospitality said the importance of notifying the licensing board of completed training “cannot be overstated”.
“Failure to inform the board, through the various ways they want, means you will lose your personal licence,” he said.
“You will lose the ability, for five years, to supervise or authorise the sale of alcohol on a licensed premises here in Scotland.
“It’s time to do something now.”