Premises licence: minor variation applications

What can and cannot be varied

The Licensing Act 2003 allows premises licence and club premises certificate holders to apply for minor variations to their licences in certain cases.

For example, it's possible to make minor changes to the layout of a premises or to add some activities to a licence, e.g regulated entertainment and late night refreshment, provided that the variation does not have an adverse effect on any of the licensing objectives.

However, this procedure may not be used to:

• extend the period for which the licence has effect 
• vary substantially the premises to which it relates 
• change the designated premises supervisor 
• add the sale or supply of alcohol 
• authorise the supply of alcohol at any time between 11pm and 7am
• authorise an increase in the amount of time on any day during which alcohol may be sold or supplied.

The Home Office guidance is a useful document to help you determine whether to apply for a minor variation or whether a variation application is necessary.

Document

Home Office - Minor Variation guidance PDF, 44.03 KB, 4 pages

The fee for a minor variation to a premises licence is £89.
Apply for a minor variation of an existing licence

What happens next

The licensing authority must grant an application only if it considers that none of the variations proposed in the application could have an adverse effect on the promotion of any of the licensing objectives. In any other case, the authority must reject the application. 

The licensing authority must consult with any or all of the responsible authorities as appropriate and consider any comments received. Members of the public have ten working days from the day after the licensing authority receives a valid application to submit representations. The council must therefore wait until this period has elapsed before determining the application, but must do so at the latest within 15 working days, beginning on the first working day after we receive the application, with effect that either:

• the minor variation is granted
• the application is rejected.

Application approval (tacit consent)

Tacit consent does not apply. If we fail to respond to you within 15 working days, the application will be treated as rejected and we will return the fee to the you . However, if agreed with you, we may instead treat the undetermined application as a new application using the fee you originally submitted.