Agendas, reports and minutes

Minute of the meeting of The Highland Licensing Forum held in Committee Room One, Council Offices, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness on Tuesday 4th March 2014 at 2 pm  

Present: 

Ramsay McGhee (Trade and Licence Member) – Convener in the Chair

Mrs Pat Hayden (Resident Member) - Vice Convener

Sharon Williamson (Licensed trade representative) – by video link from Portree 

Joanne Sutherland (Personal Licence Holder)

Gordon Clelland (Licensed trade representative)

Donald Lawson (Licensed trade representative)

Gwyn Phillips (Resident Member)

Mrs Janet Home (Resident Member)

Sergeant Shonnie Campbell (representative of Police Scotland) [from Item 5 on the Agenda]

Sergeant Archie Henderson (representative of Police Scotland) [from Item 5 on the Agenda]

Elisabeth Smart, Public Health Consultant (Health Service representative)

Sarah Mackenzie (formerly Henderson) (substituting for Debbie Stewart, Highland Drug and Alcohol Partnership)

Cath King, Policy Manager Highland Council (Education and Social Care representative)

David Inglis, Licensing Standards Officer

In attendance:

Fiona Sinclair, Legal Adviser to the Forum and Clerk

The Clerk welcomed attendees to the meeting and invited nominations for the post of Convener. 

Pat Hayden, seconded by Janet Home nominated Ramsay McGhee.  Ramsay agreed to accept the nomination.  There being no further nominations Ramsay was duly appointed Convener of the Forum until the first meeting of the Forum in the year 2015.  Before taking the Chair Ramsay proposed that the Forum record their sincere and grateful thanks to Pat Hayden for her work as Convener of the Forum.  The Forum so agreed.  Ramsay then took the Chair.  

The Forum noted that the appointment of a Vice Convener is not required by the Act although it has been the custom for the Highland Forum to appoint a Vice Convener to hold office for a similar term to the Convener.  The Forum agreed to appoint a Vice Convener and the Convener invited nominations. 

Janet Home, seconded by Don Lawson proposed Pat Hayden.  Pat agreed to accept the nomination.  There being no further nominations Pat was duly appointed Vice Convener of the Forum until the first meeting of the Forum in the year 2015.

Apologies for absence were intimated on behalf of –

David McDiarmid (Representative of Fire and Rescue Service)

Gillian Gunn (representing Highland Violence Against Women Strategy Group)

Ian Cox, Licensing Standards Officer

Elizabeth Treasurer, Licensing Standards Officer

The minutes of the meeting held on 24 September 2013, copies of which had been circulated with the Agenda were held as read and were approved subject to the amendment that Gordon Clelland had attended the meeting in person rather than by video link from Fort William as had been reported in the minute.

Arising from the minutes it was noted that the Board’s Policy Statement had been well received within the licensed trade.  Ramsay thanked the Forum members for their input into the consultation process.

At this point, the two representatives of Police Scotland arrived at the meeting.

In connection with the policy statement, the following points arose:

(a) Evaluation of Overprovision Policy - Don Lawson asked how the success or otherwise of the overprovision policy statement would be measured.  Lis Smart commented that Alcohol Focus is looking at this issue across Scotland but agreed it is difficult to evaluate its impact.  It was agreed that the issue be raised at the Joint Meeting with the Licensing Board to be held later this year

(b) Early opening hours for distilleries / inland water cruise ships and other visitor centres – David Inglis noted that at paragraph 2.2 the Policy allows early opening for food led operations and questioned whether consideration might be given to extending the policy on early opening to tourist facilities.  It was agreed that this might also be mentioned to the Board at the Joint Meeting.

It was noted, following discussion at previous meetings about Forum members encouraging applications to join the Forum from outlying areas, that -

• No new applications to join the Forum had been received in recent months.  

• Caithness Disabled Access Panel had expressed interest in putting an application forward although no application had been forthcoming yet  

• While having a youth representative on the Forum was useful, new ways to engage with young people could be explored.  Perhaps Forum or Pubwatch representatives could attend a Youth Voice meeting 

• Gwyn Phillips has sold his off sales premises and no longer has an interest in licensed premises.  Gwyn, therefore, should now be regarded as a resident member of the Forum. 

6. Dates of Future Meetings in 2014

(a) Joint Meeting with the Board - Members noted that the Annual Joint Meeting of the Forum and the Licensing Board had been arranged for 12th August at 2 pm or as soon as the Board meeting on that day finishes if later.  The Forum agreed that the Board Clerk be asked to move the meeting to a separate date to avoid a repeat of events in 2013 when the commencement of the joint meeting was delayed from 2 pm until 4.30 pm due to the Board meeting overrunning.  The Forum Clerk agreed to raise this matter with the Board

(b) Future Forum Meetings – The Forum noted that the Forum meetings in 2014 would be held at 2 pm in Council Headquarters on the following dates, 20th May, 2nd September and 18th November.

7. Licensing Standards Officer’s Report

 David Inglis provided a verbal report as follows

(a) Inspections of premises – the three LSOs continue to carry out visits and inspections of licensed premises.  There is still a problem with notices not being displayed in premises as required by the legislation.  Additionally, in some cases customers have been seen consuming alcohol in premises before designated opening times. Compliance notices have been issued by LSOs where necessary.

(b) Annual fees – Five premises across Highland had had their premises licences revoked due to non-payment of annual licence fees.  None of these premises had been actively trading at the time.

(c)  Personal Licence Holder Training – PLHs must undertake mandatory training.  The Board has an obligation to issue reminders about training to personal licence holders but where people have changed addresses without notifying the Board this cannot be done.  Any PLHs who do not fulfil the statutory training requirement will have their licences automatically revoked.  He advised that the procedure for updating personal licences following completion of the training has been finalised in Highland and clarified that a replacement page is sent to each PLH for their licence, PLHs need not send their whole Personal Licence to the Board.   It was noted that this system was different to that operated by some other Boards.  Concern was expressed at the number of PLHs who will require to be trained before 1st September and the limited number of trainers available.

 (d) Licence Fees – A shortfall in licensing fee income against budget for the current year is anticipated.  This has arisen partly due to the lack of variation applications as hours and conditions have been harmonised across Highland.  Ramsay commented that he had not received a note of the Board’s income and expenditure as requested from the Clerk and suggested that it may be necessary to resort to making a Freedom of Information request to obtain the information. The review of Alcohol Licensing Fees carried out by a national steering group did not make any recommendations for substantive changes of fees.

 (e) Recent case law – the recent case of Trust Inns Ltd v City of Glasgow Licensing Board highlighted the requirement for licence holders to be proactive and keep a note of incidents taking place on premises and take appropriate action.

 (f) Licensing Board Website – the Licensing section of the Highland Council website has been updated and contains lots of useful information although sometimes the information can be hard to find.  The online Licensing register had been adapted to hide the details of personal licence holders which cannot be displayed.

 (g) Electronic submission of applications – new electronic forms encourage applicants to provide more information.  David undertook to keep the Forum up to date as it becomes possible to make more applications on line

 (h) Highland wide Licensing telephone number  - instead of calling individual officers whose numbers will no longer be published, members of the public are encouraged to call the Highland wide licensing number at the Council Service Centre

9. Convener’s Report on Licensing Board Meetings     

 The Convener said that he had little to report from recent board meetings, most of the business having been routine, although he observed that each Board agenda displays a list of premises licences which are being surrendered.  The number of premises surrendering licences was a matter of concern to him.  It was also noted that the Board had agreed at its January meeting that during the period that the Mod is in Inverness, 10th to 17th October 2014 extensions similar to the Festive policy are available for premises within Inverness. 

10. Urgent business not on the Agenda

 (a) Police Scotland – Don Lawson reported that PS Shonnie Campbell had attended a meeting of Inverness Pubwatch following concern expressed by local licensees and he said that PS Campbell had usefully clarified Police Scotland procedures.  PS Campbell clarified that Police Scotland keep an overview of incidents linked to licensed premises ensuring licensees uphold the five licensing objectives.  He said that policing of licensed premises shouldn’t be significantly different across Highland under Police Scotland to the way it had been under Northern Constabulary. He referred to the three categories of premises for policing purposes:-

• Monitored premises
• Premises where interventions have been necessary
• Problematic premises (where serious and organised crime exists)

He said that premises in the third category do not exist in the Highlands at the moment, and that while the police could not be complacent there were no significant problems with licensed premises in the Highlands.  It was agreed that PS Campbell would continue to give updates at future Forum meetings on policing issues insofar as they impact on licensing.

 (b)  Occasional Licences run by Voluntary Organisations – Joanne Sutherland referred to a problem she encounters as a licensed door steward working at fundraising dances where voluntary organisations hold occasional licences subject to conditions that young persons are allowed entry provided they are accompanied by a responsible adult.  Joanne stated that sometimes it seems that only twenty out of one hundred and sixty attendees are over eighteen years of age.  PS Campbell reported that Police Scotland are considering standard licence conditions.  David Inglis reported that sometimes PLHs apply for occasional licences but don’t actually attend the event in person as they are required to do.  Joanne stated that the concern is often the amount of trouble that under 18s can cause if they congregate outside premises.  David Inglis suggested that more targeted conditions may help resolve the issue and agreed to discus with LSOs.

 (c) Requirement for Applicants and Objectors to Attend Board Meetings – it was noted that applicants and objectors can travel long distances to licensing board meetings and not be given the opportunity to speak.  The Forum Clerk was asked to raise the issue with the Board Clerk.

The meeting closed at 3.40 pm.