Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005: consultation on application fees for renewing personal licences

Renewal of personal licence

10. Renewal of the personal licence every ten years provides an opportunity to check that any convictions for relevant and foreign offences have been properly notified to the relevant licensing authority, and that all such convictions have been properly endorsed upon the licence. It also provides an opportunity to ensure that the photograph of the holder on the personal licence is updated to aid identification.

11. With the licensing regime contained in the 2005 Act going live in September 2009, the ten year point will be reached in September 2019. This means that personal licence holders who first obtained their licence at the introduction of the existing regime (in September 2009) will need to renew their personal licence for the first time before September 2019.

12. Section 78 of the 2005 Act sets out the steps an individual must take to apply for the renewal of a personal licence.

13. The Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015, which was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 25 June 2015, revised aspects of the personal license holder arrangements, including the timescales for renewals. The 2005 Act originally required that applications for renewal should be lodged within a period of 2 months, starting from 3 months before the expiry of the licence. To assist Licensing Boards and personal licence holders, the 2015 Act substantially extended the period for renewal applications by amending the 2005 Act. The 2005 Act now requires that renewal applications are lodged no earlier than twelve months prior to expiry and no later than three months before expiry. The first personal licences issued under the Act are deemed to have an expiry date of 1 September 2019. Therefore, the window for first renewal applications opens 31 August 2018 and closes 31 May 2019.