Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011

The government set a clear commitment to overhaul alcohol licensing to tackle the crime and disorder caused by alcohol and the resultant health and social harms, and to rebalance the Licensing Act 2003 in favour of local communities.

From July to September 2010, the Home Office conducted a public consultation exercise on the rebalancing of the Licensing Act 2003.

You can read through the original consultation and accompanying documents, as well as the government response to the 'Rebalancing the Licensing Act' consultation and the full consultation analysis (part one and part two).

Proposals outlined in the Rebalancing the Licensing Act consultation were taken forward in the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill which received royal assent on 15 September 2011 and is now the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 (PRSR Act).

The new measures in the Act include:

• doubling the fine for persistent underage sales to £20,000
• introducing a late night levy to help cover the cost of policing the late night economy
• increasing the flexibility of early morning alcohol restriction orders
• lowering the evidential threshold on licensing authorities
• removing the vicinity test for licensing representations to allow wider local community involvement
• reforming the system of temporary event notices (TENs)
• suspension of premises licences due to non-payment of annual fees

We produced a set of fact sheets which provide detailed and factual information on the main alcohol proposals currently being taken forward.

The majority of these measures came into force on 25 April 2012. Some of the alcohol provisions introduced in the Act require substantive changes to secondary legislation prior to commencement. The late night levy, early morning alcohol restriction orders and locally set fees measures will therefore be brought in at a later date (October 2012 or April 2013).

In January 2012, we launched a consultation on early morning restriction orders (EMROs) and the late night levy. The consultation which closed on 10 April 2012, sought views on particular aspects of EMROs and the late night levy, including; the process of adopting an EMRO and/or the levy; categories of business which will be exempt from any EMRO; categories of business which individual licensing authorities may choose to exempt from, or afford a reduction in relation to, the late night levy; and the kinds of services a licensing authority may fund with their share of the levy. 

A response to the consultation will be issued soon.

Further information about the implementation of locally set licensing fees will be available later this year.

The statutory guidance issued under section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003 has been revised to reflect the changes introduced by the PRSR Act.

Supporting guidance is available, which covers the changes introduced by the PRSR Act, which came into force on 25 April 2012.