§ GENERAL PROVISIONS AS TO PROCEDURE, DURATION OF LICENCES AND APPEALS
§ 1.—(1) The licensing justices for each licensing district shall hold a general annual licensing meeting and not less than four nor more than eight transfer sessions in the twelve months beginning with February in every year.
§ (2) The licensing sessions of each twelve months shall be held at as nearly regular intervals as may be, and the general annual licensing meeting shall be held in the first fortnight of February.
§ (3) The licensing justices shall appoint the day, time and place for holding the licensing sessions of each twelve months at a meeting held not less than twenty-one days before the day appointed for the general annual licensing meeting or, in the case of the transfer sessions, either at that meeting or at the general annual licensing meeting.
§ (4) The licensing justices may for the general annual licensing meeting appoint different days for different parts of the licensing district, and, if they do, may appoint different places also.
§ (5) A licensing sessions may for the purpose of dealing with business not disposed of be from time to time continued by adjournment beyond the day appointed for the holding of the sessions; but no new application may be made at any adjourned sessions, and references in any enactment (in whatever terms) to the day or first day of a licensing sessions and to the conclusion of a licensing sessions shall be taken as referring to the day appointed for holding the sessions and to the conclusion of the proceedings on that day (and, in the case of a general annual licensing meeting for which different days are appointed for different parts of the licensing district, as having reference to the one appointed for the relevant part of the district.
§ (6) When licensing justices have appointed the time and place for holding any licensing sessions, the clerk shall advertise notice of it in a newspaper circulating in the licensing district, and shall send notice of it
- (a) to every member of the licensing committee;
- (b) to every holder of a justices' licence in the licensing district;
- (c) to every person who gives or has previously given the clerk notice of his intention to apply for a justices' licence at those sessions:
- (d) to the chief officer of police for the police area or each of the police areas in which the licensing district or any part of it is situated.
§ 2.—(1) A person proposing to apply at a licensing sessions for the grant of a new justices' licence, or for the ordinary or special removal or transfer of a justices' licence, shall give the following notices—
- (a) not less than twenty-one days before the day of the licensing sessions he shall
1096 give notice in writing to the clerk to the licensing justices, the chief officer of police and the proper local authority; - (b) in the case of a transfer he shall give the like notice to the holder of the licence (if any), and in the case of a removal he shall give the like notice to the registered owner of the premises from which it is sought to remove the licence and the holder of the licence (if any) unless he is also the applicant;
- (c) except in the case of a transfer, he shall—
- (i) not more than twenty-eight days before the day of the licensing sessions display notice of the application for a period of seven days in a place where it can conveniently be read by the public on or near the premises to be licensed (or, in the case of an application for a provisional grant, on or near the proposed site of those premises); and
- (ii) not more than twenty-eight days nor less than fourteen days before the day of the licensing sessions (and, if the licensing justices so require, on some day or days outside that period but within such other period as they may require) advertise notice of the application in a newspaper circulating in the place where the premises to be licensed are situated.
§ (2) A person proposing to apply at transfer sessions for the renewal of a justices' licence shall give notice in accordance with paragraph (a) of sub-paragraph (1) above.
§ (3) With the notice given under paragraph (a) of sub-paragraph (1) above to the clerk to the licensing justices there shall be deposited a plan of the premises to be licensed, if the application is
- (a) for the grant of a new justices' on-licence or of an ordinary removal of a justices' on-licence; or
- (b) for the provisional grant of a new justices' off-licence or of an ordinary reinoval of a justices' off-licence;
§ (4) A notice under this paragraph
- (a) shall be signed by the applicant or his authorised agent;
- (b) shall state the name and address of the applicant and, except in the case of a removal of a licence held by him or of a renewal, his trade or calling during the six months preceding the giving of the notice;
- (c) shall state the situation of the premises to be licensed and, in the case of a removal, the premises from which it is sought to remove the licence;
- (d) in the case of a new licence, shall state the kind of licence for which application is to be made.
§ (5) The notice required by paragraph (a) of sub-paragraph (1) above to be given to the proper local authority shall be given
- (a) if the premises to be licensed are in an urban parish, to the clerk to the rating authority;
- (b) if those premises are in a borough included in a rural district, to the town clerk (as well as to the clerk to the rating authority);
- (c) if those premises are in a rural parish, to the clerk to the parish council or, where there is no parish council, to the chairman of the parish meeting,
§ (6) In relation to the notice required by paragraph (a) of sub-paragraph (1) above to be given to the chief officer of police, subsection (4) of section one hundred and sixty-five of the Licensing Act, 1953 (which prescribes by reference to the situation of the relevant premises the chief officer of police to whom notices are to be given) shall have effect in the case of a removal (as in other cases) as if the references to the premises to which the notice relates were references to the premises to be licensed.
§ (7) Where the applicant for the grant of a justices' licence has, through inadvertence or misadventure, failed to comply with the requirements of this paragraph, the licensing justices may, upon such terms as they think fit, postpone consideration of his application; and, if on the postponed consideration they are satisfied that any terms so imposed have been complied with, they may deal with the application as if the applicant had complied with the requirements of this paragraph.
§ 3.—(1) On the consideration of an application for a justices' licence the applicant shall, if so required by the licensing justices, attend in person (but so that in the case of a renewal the applicant shall not be required to attend unless objection is made to the renewal), and licensing justices may postpone consideration of an application until the applicant does so attend.
§ (2) Subsections (1), (3) and (4) of section seventy-seven of the Magistrates' Courts Act, 1952 (which provide for compelling the attendance of witnesses, etc.), shall apply in relation to licensing justices and to an application for the grant of a justices' licence as if they were a magistrates' court for the petty sessions area constituting the licensing distrot and the application were a complaint.
§ 4.—(1) Subject to the following sub-paragraphs, sections thirty-five to thirty-seven of the Licensing Act, 1953, shall apply in the case of any appeal to quarter sessions against a decision or order of licensing justices under that Act or this Act as they apply in the case of an appeal against a refusal to renew a justices' licence (subject, however to any special provision made by section thirty-five for appeals against orders under section twelve of that Act, and to any enactment providing for that section to apply as it applies to appeals against such an order).
§ (2) No person may appeal to quarter sessions against the grant of a justices' licence who has not appeared before the licensing justices and opposed the grant; and no person may appeal against a refusal to attach conditions to a licence or to vary or revoke conditions 1098 previously attached, except the person (if any) whose application or request is required for the justices to have jurisdiction to attach or to vary or revoke the conditions: but where under subsection (6) of section two of this Act conditions are attached on the occasion of a renewal, transfer or removal, the applicant for the renewal, transfer or removal may appeal notwithstanding that it is done at his request.
§ (3) On an appeal against the grant of a justices' licence the applicant for the licence and not the licensing justices shall be respondent, and notice of appeal must be given to him as well as to the clerk of the licensing justices; and the proviso to subsection (1) of section thirty-six and section thirty-seven of the Licensing Act, 1953 (which relate to the costs of licensing justices on an appeal) shall not apply.
§ (4) On an appeal against a refusal to grant a justices' licence, or against a decision as to conditions given on the grant of a licence, any person who appeared before the licensing justices and opposed the grant shall be respondent in addition to the licensing justices.
§ (5) On appeals to which section thirty-five of the Licensing Act, 1953, applies, the clerk to the licensing justices shall transmit the notice of appeal to the clerk of the peace, and the appeal shall be entered and notice thereof given by the clerk of the peace, as in a case where the justices' clerk is required to transmit the notice of an appeal from a magistrates' court and subsection (2) of section eighty-five of the Magistrates' Courts Act, 1952, shall apply accordingly with respect to the abandonment of the appeal; and where a person appears before licensing justices and opposes the grant of a justices' licence, his name and address shall be recorded by the clerk to the licensing justices and, in the event of an appeal against a refusal of the grant or against a decision as to conditions given on the grant, shall be transmitted to the clerk of the peace with the notice of appeal.
§ (6) Where there is an appeal against a decision as to the conditions of a licence, or where an appeal quarter sessions grant or confirm the grant of a licence, quarter sessions may by their order make any provision as to the attachment of conditions which the licensing justices might have made; and subsection (5) of section two of this Act shall apply with the necessary modifications where on an appeal quarter sessions refuse to confirm a grant of a new justices' on-licence.
§ (7) The quarter sessions having jurisdiction under subsection (1) of section thirty-five of the Licensing Act, 1953, to entertain an appeal against the grant of or refusal to grant an ordinary removal from one county (within the meaning of that subsection) to another, or against a decision as to conditions given on such a grant, shall be determined by reference to the situation of the premises to be licensed.
§ (8) Where the same application to licensing justices gives rise to more than one appeal to quarter sessions, quarter sessions may give such directions as they think fit for the appeals to be heard together or separately, and where two or more appeals are heard together, quarter sessions may deal with the costs of 1099 the appeals, so far as those costs are in their discretion, as if it were a single appeal.
§ 5.—(1) Subject to the following provisions of this Part of this Schedule, a justices' licence—
- (a) shall be granted to have effect from the time of the grant until the end of the licensing year or, if it is granted in the last three months of a licensing year, until the end of the following licensing year; but
- (b) shall be superseded on the coming into force of a licence granted by way of renewal, transfer or removal of it.
§ (2) A justices' licence granted by way of transfer or removal may be granted to have effect from a time specified in the grant (not being earlier, where it is granted before the coming into force of the licence transferred or removed, than the time of the coming into force of that licence).
§ (3) In the case of a licence granted provisionally, sub-paragraph (1) above shall apply as if it were granted at the time when it is declared final, but a transfer of such a licence may be granted so as to have effect for the purpose of superseding that licence from a date before it is declared final, and, if so granted, shall as regards its duration and coming into force be subject to the same provisions as if it were the licence transferred.
§ (4) Where on the renewal or transfer of a licence the licensing justices attach new conditions (whether in addition to or in substitution for any conditions previously attached), the justices may, on such terms as they think just, suspend the operation of those conditions in whole or in part pending the determination of any appeal against the decision to attach them or pending the consideration of the question of bringing such an appeal.
§ (5) When (under subsection (4) of section six of the Licensing Act, 1953, or any previous enactment to the like effect) a justices' licence has before the coming into force of this paragraph been granted otherwise than as an annual licence, any licence granted by way of transfer (directly or indirectly) of that licence shall be granted to have effect for a period ending with the term for which that licence was granted:
§ Provided that this sub-paragraph shall not apply where, after the coming into force of this paragraph, there has been a removal of that licence.
§ (6) This paragraph shall apply to licences granted by way of removal of a licence in suspense by virtue of section eighty-three or ninety-two of the Licensing Act, 1953, but subject to that shall not affect subsection (4) of section eighty-four or subsection (4) of section ninety-four of that Act.
§ (7) For the purposes of this paragraph "licensing year" means the twelve months beginning with the fifth day of April in any year.
§ 6.—(1) The provisions of this paragraph shall have effect where on an application to licensing justices for the grant of a new justices' licence or for the grant of a licence by way of ordinary removal of a justices' licence, a person appears before the licensing 1100 justices and opposes the grant, but the justices grant the licence.
§ (2) Until the expiration of the time for bringing an appeal against the grant and, if such an appeal is brought, until the appeal has been disposed of,
- (a) the licence granted shall not come into force;
- (b) (subject to any direction of the licensing justices to the contrary) in the case of an ordinary removal the licence which it is sought to remove, if in force at the time of the grant, shall not expire.
§ (3) If on appeal the grant is confirmed or if the appeal is abandoned, the time when the appeal is disposed of shall be substituted for the time of the grant for the purpose of determining the period for which the licence is to have effect, and quarter sessions shall (if need be) amend the licence accordingly.
§ (4) If there is an appeal against the grant of an ordinary removal, and the licence which it is sought to remove is in force on the day when notice of appeal is given to the applicant for the removal, then—
- (a) he may within seven days of that day give notice in writing to the clerk of the peace of his desire that the expiration of that licence shall be postponed for a specified period (not exceeding three weeks) after the appeal is disposed of, and if he does so, sub-paragraph (2) above shall apply until the expiration of that period;
- (b) whether or not he gives such a notice, quarter sessions, if they confirm the grant and if he so requests, may by their order direct that that sub-paragraph shall continue to apply for such further period as they think fit;
- (c) if quarter sessions refuse to confirm the grant, and at the time of their decision it is too late to renew that licence at the general annual licensing meeting at which it was due for renewal, then—
- (i) the holder of the licence shall be treated as having had reasonable cause for not applying for renewal at that meeting, and the licence may be renewed at transfer sessions accordingly; and
- (ii) if notice has been given under paragraph (a) above, and within the period for which the licence is continued in force by that paragraph notice is given to the clerk to the licensing justices of an application for the renewal of the licence at the first licensing sessions held not less than twenty-one days after the notice is given, the licence shall not expire until the application is disposed of or those sessions end without it being made.