MSPs urged to explain licensing fees

December 17, 2007: Representatives of the Scottish licensed trade are lobbying MSPs to reject proposed fees for premises licences application under the forthcoming Licensing Act unless they can be fully justified.

In a letter signed by Patrick Browne, chief executive of the Scottish Beer and Pub Association, on behalf of his own members and also of the British Hospitality Association in Scotland and the BII Scotland, MSPs are told that the proposed draft fee levels were based on a piece of research conducted in 2005, which used questionnaires returned by Scotland’s Licensing Boards to estimate the total workload and costs of the new licensing regime.

However, writes Mr Browne, when the Fees Regulation was actually tabled in the Scottish Parliament last week the proposed draft fees had doubled "with no real explanation, raising the total costs to industry in fees alone to an estimated £20 million over the next 18 months.

"We believe that if the proposed fee levels are agreed by the Scottish Parliament they will risk putting out of business many of Scotland’s vulnerable pubs, hotels and restaurants, and other licensed premises, especially those in rural and suburban areas, the vast majority of which are operated as small to medium sized businesses, by significantly and unnecessarily adding to the other costs, which licensed premises will have to bear in order to obtain a new licence," writes Mr Browne.

He adds: "Scotland’s licensed and hospitality industries are more than happy to pay the costs of the licensing system in Scotland where these costs are transparent and evidenced, but we do not believe the current proposed fee levels meet this requirement."

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