Report To Regulatory Committee Licensing
6 September 2011
Subject:
Licensing Team Work Plan 2011 to 2012
Status:
Routine Matter for Decision
Report Ref:
Ward(s):
All
Key Decision:
Key Decision Ref:
Report Of:
Head of Legal and Democratic Services
Contact:
Mrs L Cannon, Licensing Manager. ext 2296, or email
[email protected] or tel (01256) 845296
Appendices:
1 - Licensing Team Action Plan
Papers relied on
to produce this
report
SUMMARY
1
This Report
1.1
This report is to advise members of the work plan of the Licensing Team for
2011 to 2012.
2
Recommendation
It is recommended that:
2.1
The Licensing committee note the contents of the work plan and consider the
implications of the additional work requested by the committee to review and
amend the Sex Establishment Licensing Policy as resolved at the June 2011
Licensing Committee.
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PRIORITIES, IMPACTS AND RISKS
Contribution To Council Priorities
This report accords with the Council’s Budget and Policy Framework
Council Plan Ref 2011-14:
CO1, CO2, H1
3-Year Action Plan:
Other References:
Impacts
No
significant
impacts
Type
Impacts
for
BDBC
Financial
Impacts on
Wellbeing
Equality and Diversity
x
Rural/Urban
x
Crime and Disorder
x
Health
x
Environment and Climate Change
x
Economic
x
Involving
Others
Some Significant
impacts
impacts
x
Personnel
x
Legal
x
Communication/Consultation
x
Partners
x
Risk Assessment
Number of risks identified:
0
Number of risks considered HIGH or Medium:
Strategic:
Already identified on Corporate Risk Register?
Operational:
Already identified in Service Plans?
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Term
Definition
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Yes
No
Yes
No
DETAIL/MAIN CONSIDERATIONS
3
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
3.1
All of the work of the Licensing Team is statutory. The team provide a broad
Licensing service including the following licensing regulatory functions:













Licensing Act 2003
Premises, Clubs, TENs, Personal Licences etc
Gambling Act 2005
Premises, permits, gaming machines and Lotteries
Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976
Hackney carriages and Private hire Vehicles, Drivers and Operators
Town Police Clauses Act 1847 (Taxis)
Hackney Carriage vehicles and drivers.
Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982
Street Trading and Sex establishments
Highways Act 1980
Tables and chairs on the Highway
Animal Welfare Act 2006
Prevention of animal suffering
Animal welfare Acts including licensing of commercial and home
boarding, pet shops, Riding establishments, Riding establishments,
Dangerous Wild Animals, Zoos, Dog breeders.
Motor Salvage Operators Regulations 2002
Registration of Motor Salvage Operators
Scrap metal dealers Act 1964
Registration of Scrap Metal Dealers
Charities Act 1992
Issuing of Permits for charitable street collections
Factories Act
Permitting (non exempt) House to House collections
Hypnotism Act 1952 (as amended)
Authorising performances of stage hypnotism.
Police and Criminal Justice Act 2001
Implementation and review of Designated Public Places Orders
3.2
In 2010 to 2011 the team processed 1639 individual licences or changes to
licences such as variations, transfers and renewals. Depending on the type of
transaction the time taken can range from a few minutes to several hours over
many weeks.
3.3
Almost all of the functional areas require committee approved licensing
policies and some such as contentious applications require reports to
Licensing committee and sub committee for decision making in accordance
with the council’s constitution or the relevant legislation.
3.4
At the June 2011 Licensing Committee it was resolved:
That officers prepare a report that sets out the appropriateness and lawfulness
of a nil limit in other areas and the whole Borough, using expert legal advice
and in consultation with ward Members.
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3.5
In further discussion it was agreed that this would be a project needing to be
resourced and that Licensing Manager would bring a report on the Licensing
Team workload to the committee to agree how the Sex Establishment project
requested by the committee could be resourced and what projects could be
deferred to accommodate the sex establishment policy work.
3.6
The Licensing team action plan for 2011-2012 is attached at Appendix 1. This
lists the work associated with the day to day functions of the team and other
projects deemed necessary due to implementation of new legislation, changes
to legislation, policy review to improve decision making and other projects to
improve overall efficiency, effectiveness and value for money of the team and
the services it provides.
3.7
The projects have been prioritised taking into account the efficiencies and
savings demands, dates of changes to the legislation, resources required,
benefits to the relevant trades and benefits to the organisation in terms of
costs and efficiency.
3.8
The licensing action plan does not however, allow for ‘significant’ changes in
the day to day workload, peaks in demand for unexpected advice, application
numbers, complaints etc nor a significant change in resources. The
unexpected cannot be planned for.
3.9
During June, July and August there has been an increase in the number of
service requests to the team. Service requests are broadly defined as any
work that requires a response from the team. These can be by way of
investigations into complaints, allegations, general enquiries or a requirement
for additional work to support ‘not the norm’ cases, appeals or prosecutions as
well as additional and unexpected contentions applications or projects.
During the same period there has been an unexpected reduction in staffing
resources. This has resulted in a delay in commencing or completing some of
the projects planned for this year and those carried over from previous years.
3.10
In the period March to August 2011 there has been an increase in the number
of applications processed compared to the 2010 numbers.
3.11
The team has also taken on additional work in preparation for the review of
the Licensing Team under the efficiencies and savings review of the
organisation as a whole. This includes daily time recording, recording of more
detailed statistical information on work activities etc.
3.12
Officers have also increased the amount and frequency of routine inspections
and out of hours enforcement.
3.13
Since the work plan was drafted the team have completed or are undertaking
the following additional workload.

Leading on the Purple Flag project

Major investigation into unlawful Poker in partnership with Police,
Gambling commission, Insolvency Agency and HMRC.

Internal Audit of the Licensing service.

Investigation into alleged illegal dog breeding/puppy sales
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
Investigation into illegal private hire operation

Private hire driver Magistrates Court appeal

Contact centre project for service request management.
4
Current situation
4.1
There are currently 24 planned projects on the Licensing team action plan for
2011/2012. The status of each to date is shown in last column of the action
plan.
4.2
The additional work requested by the Licensing Committee with regard to the
project on sex establishments will involve the following activities:

Requesting and funding the further expert legal advice on the ‘legality’
of a nil policy across the Borough.

Based on the current legal advice, a nil policy across the whole
borough would require the borough to be broken down into a number of
localities, grouped by their nature. Given the varied nature of the
Borough, the number of such localities is likely to be high. Each of
these localities would then have to be considered to determine whether
they were suitable for a sex establishment or not, based on reasoned
argument rather than moral objections. This is likely to be a timeconsuming exercise.

Consultation with all Ward Members and where necessary, Parish and
Town councils.

Consideration of relevance and contents of responses in relation to the
expert legal advice and the proposed policy intention.

Summarising responses

Drafting report for committee for decision with suggested Sex
Establishment policy amendments.

Consultation on a draft revised policy in the same format as for the
current policy

Review of consultation responses and finalised draft policy to Licensing
committee for approval.
4.3
There is currently no capacity to carry out this work. As agreed at the June
committee, members are being asked to recommend which projects they
consider a lower priority that could be deferred to provide the resources to
undertake the sex establishment work.
4.4
Members are reminded that there has only been one application for a sex
shop in the last 10 years which was refused as it did not meet the council’s
licensing policy. Officers consider that the revised policy approved in June will
also robustly prevent the grant of applications if they are made for
inappropriate areas within the Borough.
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4.5
Members are also reminded that premises licensed under the Licensing Act
2003 (LA2003) will be entitled to hold sexual entertainment events on 11
occasions each year provided that they are at least one month apart and are
not prevented by restrictions on their LA2003 licence. These events are
exempt and outside the control of the authority under the revised sex
establishment licensing legislation.
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