Agenda item

Consider report by the Clerk presenting a summary of the work of the Scottish Borders Licensing Board and the staff supporting the Board (copy attached).

Licensing Board Annual Report December 2020 to November 2021

There had been circulated copies of a report by the Clerk to the Licensing Board presenting a summary of the work of the Scottish Borders Licensing Board and the staff supporting the Board, covering the period from December 2020 to November 2021.  It was hoped that the report would assist the Forum to facilitate its scrutiny role of how the Board discharged its duties and responsibilities in terms of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 (the Act) as amended.  The Managing Solicitor, Ron Kirk, presented the report and highlighted the main points. Since the last joint meeting on 2 December 2020 the Board had met 11 times.  At each Board meeting, in addition to determining applications and reviews, Members considered all matters which had been dealt with under the delegated powers of the Clerk where both the Act permitted this method of determination and there had been no objection or representation in respect of the application.  The majority of delegated decisions were in connection with grants of occasional licences which were a feature of sporting fixtures and local festivals in the Community.  The number of Occasional Licences that had been granted in during the period were 426 compared to 1,340 prior to Covid.  Of those 36 were granted to voluntary organisations.  Extended hours were granted in response to 3 applications.

5.2       Hearings take place as part of the Board’s business as narrated in the published agenda.   The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 requires that hearings are held in public and parties have the right to address the Board or rely solely on their written submissions. However, the initial Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020 meant that holding hearings in public was not possible. The Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020 gave Boards the discretion to provide alternative means for persons to be heard such as by telephone, by video conferencing or by written communication including electronic means. As a consequence, the Board had continued to meet by Microsoft Teams Video Conferencing and this had enabled the Board to meet on a monthly basis as it had done prior to the Covid-19 outbreak.    The Board arranged review hearings in respect of premises licences as detailed in the report, all were in relation to notices for failure of premises to make a payment of the annual fee apart from 3 which were as a result of applications received from Police Scotland on the grounds of breach of licensing objectives. In 2 of these cases, the Board took no action pending the outcome of a criminal prosecution. In the other case the Licence holder undertook to surrender his licence during the meeting. In the 9 other cases relating to non-payment of annual fees, the Board suspended 4 licences, revoked 3 and took no action in respect of the other 2 as one Licence holder paid the annual fee prior to the hearing and the other licence was surrendered. The Clerk was present and answered members questions.

            DECISION

AGREED to:-

(a)        note the report; and

(b)       request that the Clerk continue to provide updates to the joint meeting          on an annual basis.