Renewal of Personal Licences

Under current legislation, personal licences need to be renewed after ten years, and the renewal application is required to be submitted no sooner than three months before the expiry date and no later than one month before the expiry date. That means that those who obtained their personal licences promptly on the introduction of the Licensing Act could be looking to renew as early as December this year.

It has been proposed that the requirement to renew personal licences should be abolished under the Deregulation Bill, which is currently before Parliament. Unfortunately, this is still some way off receiving royal assent and it is understood that it has now been confirmed in a letter to local authorities that the change will not take effect until after the time that some personal licences need to be renewed.

This will undoubtedly cause some frustration to those that need to renew given that the application fee is £50 and there is also a requirement to submit a disclosure of criminal convictions certificate, the existing personal licence and two photographs.

Guidance on how to deal with transitional arrangements is expected later this year and we will of course keep you informed of any further developments in this regard.