Agenda item

Claire Francis (Head of Public Protection) has prepared the attached Public Protection Licensing updates as at November 2024 (that was shared with Committee members via email in the absence of the December meeting) and March 2025 and will give an overview of the most recent update at the meeting.

Claire Francis (Head of Public Protection) referred to the updates circulated with the agenda on behalf of the Public Protection Licensing Team and highlighted the following:

·            Following interviews in October 2024, Claire had been appointed as Head of Public Protection and as a result some temporary changes had been made to the line management in the licensing team.  The vacant role of Public Protection Manager – Community Protection would be advised in the next few weeks;

·            There had been a successful bid for enforcement group funding for a temporary additional Licensing Officer for 3 days a week for 14 months.  The focus of their work would be to review how the team deal with complaints about animal licences as well as raise awareness of animal licensing requirements across Wiltshire.  That officer would also be covering some of Emma Hyde’s maternity leave from April 2025;

·            Licensing Officers had been able to attend training for the Professional Licensing Practitioners qualification which had been funded by the Enforcement Management Group and this would help to improve the knowledge and confidence to enforce licensing legislation across the team;

·            There was event planning for summer events taking place and there would be at least 4 Event Safety Advisory Group (ESAG) meetings to chaired and the team were working closely with a number of festival organisers e.g. Shindig festival and Existence festival which were planned at Charlton Park, Malmesbury as well as the Wiltshire Throwback Festival planned for Melksham;

·            The team were reviewing the event information on the website to make it clearer and easier for event organisers to access the relevant information and advice;

·            There was currently no update on Martyn’s Law or the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill that was being considered by the House of Lords.  There was a working group to look at the impact this might have on premises and would relate to larger events falling in the scope of over 800 people in attendance and further details were awaited;

·            The new ARCUS database was introduced from June 2024 and after a difficult start the team were now able to use the system more fully and were seeing some real benefits for the licensing service.  There had been huge progress in preparing online forms to go on the website as well as Public Registers which would contain live data taken from the database.  The team were in the final states of testing an online form to apply for a Temporary Event Notice (TEN) and make payments and due to the volume of TEN applications received this would have a real impact and reduce admin time;

·            Annual fee reminders were now being sent via email where possible and payments were being received much quicker.   Currently 190 premises licences were suspended for non-payment.  Some of those were businesses were vacant pubs that were likely not currently trading.  Officers were following up these suspensions and would be visiting premises to see if they were currently operating and would share any relevant information with the Police who could carry out weekend visits to check that they are not selling alcohol;

·            There were a total of 34 premises in Wiltshire that are licenced under the Gambling Act 2005 and although there is not an agreed inspection plan for gambling premises to be visited unless a complaint is made, the team would be focusing on those visits in the next financial year to ensure that they are adhering to their conditions;

·            There was currently public consultation running from 23 February to 23 March which proposed to extend the licensing hours for the sale of alcohol for the semi-finals and the final of the Women’s Euros in July 2025 should England or Wales be successful in reach those milestones – the proposed extension would be to 01:00 hours; and

·            It was now likely that some Licensing Sub Committee hearings would be required to hopefully be scheduled before the elections on 1 May.

The Chairman reported that the Committee Clerk would be contacting members when the hearing notifications were received and they were asked to let the Clerk know of any dates they would not be available.

The Chairman expressed concern about the number of premises licence suspensions and wondered how it compared with previous years.  He noted that it was valid to work with the Police on checking the premises as there was a need to ensure that premises operate safely.  He suggested that Pubwatch could highlight the need for licensing fees to be paid.  Claire Francis responded that there was a much better grasp of issues with a systematic approach now in place to deal with this and that it could be that invoices had not been received because of contact details and email addresses changing and officers would work with premises who were not currently operating but wished to retain their licence.

It was noted that the VE Day celebrations would be held on Thursday 8 May and the Chairman asked if relevant communications had/could be sent to Town and Parish councils to advise them of licensing and street closures processes.

In relation to training for the new Council members it was confirmed that there would be a Public Protection overview session for all Councillors, then more specific information around Licensing Sub Committees for those who were hoping to join the Licensing Committee and then mandatory training for the Licensing Committee members and substitutes so that they were able to sit on Licensing Sub Committee hearings.  A committee member commented that the LGA Councillor tip sheets were useful and could be used as part of the training documentation. 

Resolved:

That the Committee note the updates on behalf of the Public Protection Licensing Team.