Personal Licence

A personal licence permits a specified person to supply alcohol or allow the supply of alcohol at a premises that has a valid premises licence.  Personal licences do not expire, and may be used anywhere in England and Wales. You may only hold one personal licence.

Do I need a personal licence?

You will need a personal licence:

• If you are designated as the premises supervisor on a premises licence for a premises where alcohol is to be sold
• If you want to sell alcohol under a premises licence or authorise others to sell alcohol under a premises licence
• If you want to use more than five temporary event notices (TENs) in a calendar year.

How do I qualify for a personal licence?

You must:

• Be aged 18 or over
• Have an accredited licensing qualification (the Gov.uk website has a list of Accredited Personal Licence Qualification Providers )
• Have not forfeited a personal licence within the preceding five years
• Have no unspent conviction(s) for a `relevant´ or `foreign´ offence committed in this country or abroad (see Licensing Act 2003 for details)
• Have a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) standard check, conviction certificate, or Police National Computer (PNC) check (maximum 1 month old at the date of application).

You can apply for your Disclosure and Barring Barring Service Basic Check at the Civic Offices.  You will need to complete a form, submit a fee of £18 and show your original proof documents .  The Certificate will be sent to your home address, and can be submitted along with your completed application. 

How do I apply for a personal licence?

Complete and submit an application form and disclosure of convictions (836 KB) and declaration form to the licensing authority (council) where you live, not necessarily the authority where you will be working. You will also need to include:

Two photographs, which need to be:

• Taken against a light background so that your features are distinguishable and contrast against the background
• Passport photograph size (45 millimetres by 35 millimetres)
• Full face uncovered and without sunglasses and, without a head uncovering (unless worn due to religious beliefs)
• On photographic paper
• One of which is endorsed with a statement verifying the likeness of yourself to the photograph by a solicitor, notary, a person of standing in the community or any individual with a professional qualification.

Either:

• A criminal conviction certificate issued under section 112 of the Police Act 1997(a)
• A Disclosure and Barring Service Basic check Certificate (which is a maximum of one month old at the date of application).
• The results of a subject access search under the Data Protection Act 1998(b) of the Police National Computer by the National Identification Service
• In any case such certificate or search results shall be issued no earlier than one calendar month before giving of the application to the relevant licensing authority.

The fee for the application (cash can only be accepted if applying in person -- do not send cash through the post).

The holder of the licence is required by the 2003 Act to notify the licensing authority of any changes of name or address.  The holder is  under a duty to notify any convictions for relevant offences to the licensing authority.  The holder must also notify the licensing authority of any conviction for a foreign offence.

These measures will ensure  a single record will be held of the holder's history by the relevant licensing authority.