TRAINING
Training Services
I mostly just do the Personal Licence Training and Refresher Training plus a bit of the 2 hour mandatory staff training which I combine with the Age Verification training and provide a certificate covering both.
Also I have been asked to conduct a course on ID. How to identify a “Biometric Immigration Document” etc.
I offer an annual “Compliance Healthcheck” re checking what you require to keep in the premises and post on the walls. This involves checking peoples’ Personal Licences which should help with Refresher compliance! Picks up situations where the DPM has left and not been timeously replaced or even where companies holding the Premises Licence have been “put down” on Accountants’ advice where folk have forgotten they hold the Premises Licence – oops!
I offer a “Best Practice” service
I have seen Police now asking Operators to have staff / security undertake “Alcohol Awareness ” training in cases where there have been issues around possible drunk customers.
Also I have been preparing Alcohol Management Plans for major one off events such as the outside stages in the Merchant City during the Commonwealth Games
I have noticed that there is an uptake on the full Personal Licence training courses since the Refresher debacle!
Remember also that the Refresher Armageddon will happen all over again in 2019 when Personal Licence Holders require to do the full training again before applying to renew their PLs at the end of the 10 year term. Aaaaagh!!!!
Refresher Training
So we obviously have 2 different civil servants at Scottish Govt HQ drafting the Act. Lets call them Sleepy and Numpty. Sleepy writes somewhere in the 2005 Act that if a Personal Licence is revoked there is a prohibition on re-applying for 5 years. Meantime Numpty, in complete ignorance of the 5 year prohibition, is assigned the Refresher Training and he’s getting worked up about it. He decides revocation is the only possible penalty!!! His Mum is a schoolteacher and Dad is a Schools Inspector and he is like minded. So, lets make it as difficult as possible.
Ok so you have to do 2 things within very tight timescales…
1. Pass the Refresher Training exam within 5 years of the date of issue of your Personal Licence (never mind that colleague Goofy when drafting the Personal Licence decided not to put the date of issue on it, just the date of expiry)
and
2. Within a further 3 months from 5 years of the date of issue of the Personal Licence the PL holder must notify the Licensing Board that he / she has passed the Refresher exam.
So what happens if a Personal Licence holder does not do both of these things?
He/she doesn’t deserve to hold a licence. There is no capital punishment and we can’t administer the birch so let it be revoked!! Not…. let the Boards decide to warn / endorse / suspend. And let’s ignore those people who are abroad, sick, caring for dependent relatives or temporarily outwith the trade….
And remember that Numpty doesn’t know that somewhere else in the Act Sleepy has decided those whose Personal Licences are revoked cannot re-apply for 5 years.
Talk about a sledgehammer to crack a Numpty! I wish!!
This remains a ticking time bomb – all the more so now that the publicity has died down after the August and November madness – and there is no sign that independent operators have the situation under control.
Readers should know that if you haven’t completed both stages 1 and 2 above you can surrender your Personal Licence before the 3 month period in stage 2. Then you can re-apply for a new Personal Licence. (Yes Numpty oversaw that lacuna!)
Readers do be careful that if you are re-applying for a Personal Licence after surrender, some Boards will require you to retrain, despite no requirement in the Act, and others do not. I know some trainers do not check this with their attendees and subject them to unnecessary training, just as I am aware of trainers who do superfluous Refresher Courses for people who are too late to use the certificates.
Also in my view you can do your Refresher Training 5 minutes after you get your Personal Licence. You don’t have to wait the 5 years. Then at least you can relax for 9 plus years!!!
Robin Morton does twice monthly Refresher courses or to order if desperate!
Training Dates
Personal Licence Training
Thurs 26 February
Thurs 12 March
Thurs 26 March
Thurs 09 April
Thurs 30 April
Refresher Training
Thurs 26 February
Thurs 12 March
Thurs 26 March
Thurs 09 April
Thurs 30 April
LICENSING
Outside Licences
If you are in Glasgow and use the public highway for tables and chairs remember you need to renew your s59 Roads Department permission before it expires on 31 March.
Also get your occasional licence applications lodged in time for Easter!
Licensing Health Check
For a mere 150 quid (for Glasgow) which includes checking on your licensing systems/documents/training/refresher training and notices etc. on an annual visit and being on hand to assist on routine matters such as updating certificates, providing notices etc….Is your manager’s Peronal Licence needing refreshed? Call or email me if interested.
Glasgow Licensing Board Public Holidays Extended Hours
If you said yes to Seasonal Variations in Q4 of your Operating Plan you get an extra hour on the Saturdays of the following weekends without applying. If you are a late night venue then you get the Sunday also
The evening of Saturday 4 April into the early hours of Sunday 5 April 2015
• The evening of Saturday 2 May into the early hours of Sunday 3 May 2015
• The evening of Saturday 23 May into the early hours of Sunday 24 May 2015
• The evening of Saturday 18 July into the early hours of Sunday 19 July 2015
• The evening of Saturday 26 September into the early hours of Sunday 27 September 2015
Please note that these additional licensed hours will not apply to Premises Licences with a terminal licensed hour of 6am, being casinos.
leisure