After the panic ahead of the 1 September dawn of the new licensing regulations, specialist Stephen McGowan of Tods Murray LLP warns that many pubs face having their licenses revoked as another deadline looms.

Hard on the heels of the introduction of the new licensing laws in Scotland on 1 September 2009, the embattled licensed trade are now facing yet another licensing timebomb. This time, the deadline relates to the nomination of managers. If a licensed premises has not named an individual as a premises manager on the licence come 1 December, the licence is automatically revoked with no right of appeal.

Licensing boards have attempted to issue several warnings by way of letters to licence holders and website messages but there are still hundreds of premises affected all over Scotland. Aberdeen City, for example, announced on 24 November they have 66 premises still to name a manager. The front page of the Edinburgh Evening News on 26 November carried a story that 55 premises in the capital would be affected. I understand Glasgow has around 65 premises affected as at 26 November. Other Boards have also confirmed they will have no choice but to close premises.

The effect of this deadline, if missed, will be devastating for a business. The new licensing laws offer no comfort whatsoever and if a manager is not named come 1 December the licence is irretrievably lost and the only remedy is to apply for a brand new licence – but until such times as a new application is processed, no alcohol could be sold. The timing couldn’t be worse in the run up to Christmas and I can imagine horror stories of cancelled functions and businesses going under.

I would urge licence holders to check with their local board to ensure a manager has been nominated properly – the procedure varies from board to board.

So where does this “new” deadline come from? The 1 December deadline has actually been known about for some time. It was laid down in the Licensing (Transitional and Saving Provisions) (Scotland) Regulations 2007 (SSI 2007/454, regulation 24), which was laid before parliament on 11 October 2007. You may see some force, therefore, in the opinion of those who say the licensed trade has had ample time to get this right. But that’s not the whole story. Yes, there are some in the trade who have buried their heads in the sand but many people affected by this are stymied in the protracted mire surrounding the implementation of the new Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 through no fault of their own.

In order to be named as a premises manager, you need first to be the holder of a personal licence. To gain a personal licence you must first sit and pass a training course. Training courses were oversubscribed causing delays; awarding bodies were deluged and in some cases took months to issue training certificates; and applications for personal licences were put on the back burner as the trade and licensing boards focused on processing the main premises licences to the other side of the licensing mincer.

Even those who have lodged their personal licences in plenty of time might be affected, because the licensing boards are so snowed under with these applications it has been administrative chaos. The boards are typically understaffed and I know of several council employees who worked long into the night to try and clear the backlog.

Efforts have been made to ask the Government to extend the 1 December deadline, but these appear to have fallen on deaf ears. Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill, attempting to act as the little Dutch boy at the damn, did grant a previous extension to 1 November for personal licence applicants to be treated as “deemed” premises managers, but in my view that did not go far enough.

We have already lost around around 4000 licensed businesses in Scotland in the last year (that’s 20% of our total) because of the ailing economy and introduction of new laws which operators simply could not afford to comply with. It looks like the 2005 Act has a few more scalps to claim yet.

Oh, and just in case you think licensed businesses can finally relax come 2 December if all the bits of paper are in place, think again – such is the fervour to be seen to tackle binge and problem drinking we have not one, but two further Bills which will both amend the 2005 Act all over again – the Criminal Justice and Licensing Bill, which is now at debate stage at Holyrood, and the new Alcohol Bill published on 26 November which features minimum pricing and a new tax on licence premises to pay for late night clean up costs called a “social responsibility fee”, as well as even more restrictions on the advertising and marketing of alcoholic products.