10.11. S.197 of the Act provides that an application for review may be made by a responsible authority or an interested party, detailed in Part 8 of this guidance. Such applications must be submitted to the licensing authority in the prescribed form and state the reasons why a review is being requested, together with any supporting information and documents.

10.12. The regulations require the applicant to provide written notice of their application to the premises licence holder and to all responsible authorities, within seven days of making their application. Failure to do so will halt the application process until notice is received by all parties.

10.13. Representations must be made within 28 days, commencing seven days after the date on which the application was received. During these seven days the licensing authority is required to publish notice of the application, as per the process set out in the regulations referred to in paragraph 10.9.

Decision whether to grant an application for a review

10.14. S.199 provides that a licensing authority must grant an application for a review, unless it decides to reject the application under s.198 of the Act. By virtue of s.198, an application may, but need not, be rejected if the licensing authority thinks that the grounds on which the review is sought:

a) are not relevant to the principles that must be applied by the licensing authority in accordance with s.153, namely the licensing objectives, the Commission’s codes of practice and this guidance, or the licensing authority’s statement of policy
b) are frivolous
c) are vexatious
d) will certainly not cause the licensing authority to revoke or suspend a licence or to remove, amend or attach conditions on the premises licence
e) are substantially the same as the grounds cited in a previous application relating to the same premises
f) are substantially the same as representations made at the time the application for a premises licence was considered.

10.15. In the case of e) and f), the licensing authority shall take into account the period of time that has passed since the previous application or representations were made, in deciding whether this is a reasonable basis for not reviewing the licence.

10.16. As licensing authorities are required to permit the use of premises for gambling, in so far as it is in accordance with the s.153 principles, applications that raise general objections to gambling as an activity, that relate to demand for gambling premises, or raise issues relating to planning, public safety, and traffic congestion are unlikely to be considered an appropriate basis for review, leading to rejection under a) above.

10.17. The decision to grant a review must not amount to pre-judging the outcome of a review.

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Carrying out a review

Last updated: 14 September 2023

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