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 18th November 2014 at 2 pm    

Present:
Ramsay McGhee (Trade and Licence Member) – Convener in the Chair
Mrs Pat Hayden (Resident Member) - Vice Convener
Mrs Janet Home (Resident Member)
David McDiarmid, (Representative of Fire & Recuse Service)
Gordon Clelland (Licensed trade representative) (by video link)
Elisabeth Smart, Public Health Consultant (Health Service representative)
Sarah Mackenzie (substituting for Debbie Stewart, Highland Drug and Alcohol Partnership)
Ian Cox, Licensing Standards Officer
Elizabeth Treasurer, Licensing Standards Officer (by video link)

In attendance:
Fiona Sinclair, Legal Adviser to the Forum and Clerk

1. Apologies for Absence

Apologies for absence were intimated on behalf of –
Sharon Williamson (Licensed trade representative)
Joanne Sutherland (personal licence holder)
Gwyn Phillips (Resident Member)
Sergeant Shonnie Campbell (Representative of Police Scotland)
Donald Lawson (Licensed trade representative)
Cath King, Policy Manager Highland Council (Education and Social Care representative)
Gillian Gunn, currently on maternity leave (representing Highland Violence Against Women Strategy Group)
David Inglis, Licensing Standards Officer

It was noted that there had been no response to the agenda papers from Shaun Williamson, the Youth Convener.

2. Minutes of Meeting held on 2 September 2014

The minutes of the meeting held on 2nd September 2014, copies of which had been circulated with the Agenda were held as read and were approved.

3. Report on Joint Meeting with Licensing Board held on 7 October 2014

Ramsay reported and all agreed that the joint meeting on 7th October had been very successful.  It had taken place round the table in a Committee room and there had been some worthwhile exchanges of information and informed debate on various issues.  In particular –

Income and Expenditure: the Board Clerk had reported that the requested figures would soon be available.  It was noted that the Air Weapons and Licensing Bill would make the provision of income and expenditure figures compulsory. 

Primary Authority arrangements: these will not have any impact on liquor licensing.

Online applications for licences: the online system seemed to be operating satisfactorily for the applications which so far can be received.  The system and payment methods are convenient for many applicants.  Some work still to be carried out to the system and it is to be expanded.

Evaluation of Overprovision Policy Statement: the Board did not have a view on how the policy could be evaluated at this stage.  Success would be hard to measure until the policy had been in place for a few years.  The policy currently only extends to offsales but the option is there to extend it to onsales if the evidence supported that requirement.  It was generally accepted in the AFS review that the Highland Policy Statement was one of the better policy statements in Scotland.  Seventeen Boards in Scotland do not yet have overprovision policies. 

Early hours opening for distilleries: the Board will review this as suggested by the Forum

Age Verification testing: this will be taken forward by LSOs in conjunction with Trading Standards.
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Date of Joint Meeting: there is no date yet for the joint meeting for 2015 but the feeling of the Forum which seemed to be accepted by the Board at the joint meeting was that the annual joint meeting should be on a separate day to Board meetings to avoid a recurrence of the situation where the Forum members have to wait for hours for a Board meeting to concluded before the joint meeting can start.

4. LSO Report

The report prepared by Ian Cox reported on

Anomalies in the Personal Licence Holder system in relation to the possibility of circumventing the requirements for refresher training by surrendering a personal licence and immediately applying for a new licence using the original training certificate without undergoing refresher training.  The loophole was noted to be of concern particularly as if a Personal Licene Holder fails to notify the Board of refresher training within the statutory timescale, and does not surrender the personal licence, the personal licence will be revoked.  An automatic consequence of a licence being revoked in this way is that the licence holder cannot reapply for a personal licence within five years of the revocation.  Ian Cox reported that the situation is very difficult for LSOs giving information and advice to personal licence holders.  It was agreed that Ian Cox would approach the Scottish Government about the loophole and also about the procedures which Boards are to follow in 2019 when personal licences expixre.

Activity before the Board in relation to the Inverness night time economy, two late night venues having closed and late night opening being secured by hybrid premises.  Noting that each application is considered on its merits, the Forum agreed to keep an eye on the implementation of the Board’s policy in relation to the late hours.  Some members had expressed concern about premises trading for in excess of 14 hours per day.

The Royal National Mod had taken place and many premises had taken advantage of the opportunity to apply for extended hours.  No adverse incidents had been recorded and similar extensions are available for the Festive Season.  Ramsay commented that in Western Isles the Board did not require premises to apply for the extended hours, they were deemed to be granted automatically.

Members Clubs are now applying to cease to be clubs in terms of the Act.  This obviates the requirement for occasional licences for public events in the premises but does result in larger application fees. 

Applications for New Licences are being made for both on and off sales.  Also, community associations and sports clubs are submitting their full quotas of personal licences in a year. 

Proof of Age / Challenge 25 schemes are very effective.  Nowadays, young people going out for the evening as a matter of course take their accepted forms of ID with them expecting to be challenged to verify their age.  Supermarkets are believed to be particularly diligent employing their own test purchasing checks..    

The Forum noted the terms of the report.

5. Update of Personal Licence Refresher Training

This had been covered under item 5 above but it was noted that more than half of Personal Licence Holders in Highland had now submitted evidence of refresher training.  The full picture will become clear on 1st December. 

6. Application from Stuart Stirling to join the Forum

An application from Stuart Stirling of Inverness College to join the Forum to represent young people had been received by the Head of Corporate Governance at the Council.  The Forum discussed the application and agreed that Mr Stirling be invited to join the Forum with the suggestion that at his first meeting he would give Forum members an outline of how he would engage with young people. 

7. Alcohol Focus Conference

Elizabeth Smart gave a brief outline of the various items discussed at the annual Alcohol Focus Scotland conference which she had attended on 7th October.  Elizabeth said that the event had been interesting and referred Forum members to the conference papers and presentations which are available on the front page of the Alcohol Focus website http://www.alcohol-focus-scotland.org.uk/ under Latest Events. 

8. Urgent business not on the agenda

Fire and Rescue Service - David McDiarmid reported that Scottish Fire and Rescue Service are rolling out their new UFAS( Unwanted Fire Alarm Signal)  Policy and procedure on 1st December 2014.  The Fire Service are looking to work with the duty holder of all “Relevant Premises” under the Fire Scotland Act 2005.  This includes hotels, pubs, clubs,  restaurants etc. to reduce unwanted and avoidable fire alarm Call Point and Smoke/heat detector activations.  Further information  will be available on the SFRS web site once the policy has gone live 1st December.

Highland Substance Misuse Toolkit – Sarah Mackenzie and Elisabeth Smart mentioned the forthcoming launch of the Highland Substance Misuse Toolkit which has been developed by the Substance Misuse Prevention Project set up by the Highlands Alcohol and Drug Partnership.  The Toolkit is a resource to assist multi-agency contributors, teachers etc in educating young people about alcohol, drugs and smoking.  Parents and young people themselves will also be encouraged to utilise the toolkit.  Further information about the Toolkit and the launch on 12th December can be obtained from Cath.king@highland.gov.uk.

Review of the operation of the Act – the Convener had suggested that as part of the Forum’s responsibility to keep under review the operation of the Licensing Act in the Highland area, the Forum could consider Nicholson’s recommendations and revisit whether the licensing objectives are being upheld.  It was agreed that this item would be taken forward for discussion at a future meeting of the Forum. 

The meeting closed at 3.20 pm.