New Draft Licensing Policy

1. Visitors to the social economy should feel safe. However, evidence at national and regional levels has demonstrated that the social economy can be associated with increasing levels of anti-social behaviour, criminal activity and substance misuse. The issue of women’s and men’s safety has been pushed to the forefront of society and we want to ensure that this issue is highlighted and addressed.

2. The Women’s Night Safety Charter created by the Mayor of London aims to raise awareness across the late night economy to put in place best practices to keep women and vulnerable people safe at night. There is the potential for harassment to be seen as normalised behaviour that goes unchallenged and / or unreported. 

3. Licensed venues and organisers of licensed events are therefore encouraged and strongly recommended to demonstrate their commitment to ensuring that their premises provides a safe environment by taking the following steps: 

   1. Prominently display high visibility posters in their venue which discourage harassment and encourage reporting. 

   2. Take every report of harassment and sexual intimidation seriously and take appropriate action. 

   3. Take active steps to support persons who report harassment or sexual intimidation which might take place in their premises. 

   4. Train all front of house staff to address women’s and vulnerable people’s safety and harassment. 

4. The Metropolitan Police launched the safety initiative ‘Ask for Angela’ and licensees are strongly encouraged to adopt and train staff to operate such a scheme within premises. Venues that support ‘Ask for Angela’ can request Welfare And Vulnerability Engagement (WAVE) training delivered by police officers. The training explores what vulnerability is, how to identify it and appropriate interventions.

5. Applicants are also encouraged to take a proactive approach to general safety issues, including that of their customers, and to discuss appropriate measures with the responsible authorities concerned. Arrangements that might be taken into account could include: 

   1. To monitor customers, present upon the premises, so as to ensure that no customer continues to be supplied with alcohol to a point where they become drunk. 

   2. To ensure the regular collection of glass within the venue and / or external areas. 

   3. Maintain vigilance to prevent drinks being “spiked” or otherwise tampered with. 

   4. To ensure all (internal and external) parts of the premises are adequately lit and may be monitored by staff.  

   5. To take active steps to ensure females and vulnerable adults leave the venue safely. 

   6. To ensure that customers are able to return home safely, for instance, by providing information on local transport availability or making arrangements with reputable cab companies.

6. Applicants and licence holders are encouraged to train all members of staff on how to report any issues, what to say and do should they witness or be subject to harassment and how to identify harassment and those who may be vulnerable, make them aware of relevant internal policies operated within the premises. 

7. Staff need to feel comfortable to speak up and approach colleagues and management about any form of harassment that they may witness or be subject to themselves and know the processes available to them to express their views and concerns. 

8. These are simple commitments that can be easily implemented across all licensed premises. People are often too fearful to speak out about harassment and by adopting the principles above we want to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable to raise their concerns and be able to identify situations that are not acceptable. 

It is proposed that the following section is added to the revised statement of licensing policy.

DELIVERY SERVICES 

1. The borough has seen an increase in the number of applications for licenses that include the offering of delivery services. These can be broken down into 3 broad groups:

• Prepared food delivery services. Primarily food that can include alcohol.

• Convenience delivery services. Everyday essentials, groceries, food and household items that can include alcohol.  

• Specialist products supplied through mail order. Primarily alcohol but can include food.  

2. Although these types of services are not provided for in the Licensing Act 2003 in any way differently from other licensed premises, they do provide their own unique circumstances that need to be addressed. In particular, the Licensing Authority has concerns with the potential for the following: 

• Age verification at both purchase point and delivery point; 

• The safety of delivery drivers at point of delivery; 

• Safety of the premises from which orders are taken and sent out for delivery; and

• Possible public nuisance caused by delivery drivers collecting deliveries from the licensed premises. This can be prevented for example by using courier services that encourage drivers to use vehicles that are less likely to cause noise or air quality nuisances; for example, use of electric bikes or pedal bikes for late night deliveries. 

3. The Licensing Authority expects applications that include delivery services combined with late night refreshment after 23:00 hours or the delivery of alcohol, to consider how to reduce public nuisance related to delivery vehicles, ensure the security of premises and delivery drives, and to protect children.