Be prepared for Christmas trading hours

The festive period is on the horizon and will no doubt provide a welcome boost for many in the trade. However, you need to be prepared in order to make the most of it.

The majority of premises licences will have non-standard timings. Usually these will extend your hours on certain days of the week (e.g. Fridays and Saturdays) or on specific days of the year (such as Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve) and sometimes both.

Given that this year, Christmas Eve falls on a Tuesday, Boxing Day falls on a Thursday and New Year’s Eve falls on a Tuesday, it is particularly important that you check your licence to make sure your standard or non-standard timings will allow you to trade for the hours that you want. Otherwise, you will need a Temporary Event Notice to allow you to make the most of any increased trade.

The deadline by which a standard Temporary Event Notice would have to be with the Local Authority in order to be effective on Christmas Eve is Monday 9 December, so time is starting to run short. If you were sending the notice by post then it would have to be posted by Friday 6 December at the very latest.

Given that an increase in trade is often accompanied by a greater presence from the authorities, this should also serve as a timely reminder to ensure that you are familiar with all of the provisions of your premises licence and that all of your due diligence (such as staff training records) is up to date.