Aberdeen City Council’s licensing team is advising all holders of a Personal Licence with an August 31, 2019 expiry date to submit their renewal applications as early as possible.
Personal Licences are issued under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 and are granted for a period of 10 years. The licence must be renewed at least three months prior to the date of expiry. In addition, refresher training must be undertaken every five years from the issue of the licence.
Personal Licences were first introduced almost 10 years ago (Aug 2009) and the Council’s Licensing team expects to receive around 400 renewal applications over the coming months.
Ideally, refresher training certificates should also be submitted alongside the renewal application. Applicants are advised, however, not to delay sending in their renewal applications if their training certificate is not yet in place by the renewal cut-off date.
For those who have Personal Licences due to expire on August 31, 2019, the following deadlines must be adhered to in order to give the licensing team enough time to process the unprecedented number of applications:
- May 31, 2019 – last date for submission of renewal application;
- August 31, 2019 – last date for undertaking refresher training;
- November 30, 2019 – last date for submitting evidence of refresher training.
If a renewal application fails to be processed by August 31, 2019, even if submitted before the deadline, the Personal Licence will be invalid as of August 31, 2019. This means that without a Personal Licensee in place it will be illegal for alcohol to be sold on the premises from that date.
Councillor Marie Boulton, convener of Aberdeen’s Licensing Board, said: “It is essential due to the hundreds of personal licences up for renewal at the end of August 2019 that those licensees submit their renewal applications and refreshed training certificates as soon as possible.
“By doing so the Council’s Licensing team will have sufficient time to process the applications which will in turn enable the relevant premises can continue to sell alcohol to their customers. Failure to do so will mean they cannot.”
For more information visit www.aberdeencity.gov.uk and type in personal licences in the search box or click on the link below:
https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/services/business-and-licensing/licences-and-permits/personal-licences