Licensing for Pubs, Bars, Restaurants and Hotels: Personal and Premises Licences, Challenge 25, and Every Other Permit You Hold

A pub, bar, restaurant or hotel runs on licences. The premises licence says what the building may do and when; the personal licence says who may sell alcohol; the designated premises supervisor is the person the police will look for. Around them sit a dozen more: TheMusicLicence for the radio, the TV licence for the football, a pavement licence for the tables outside, a gaming machine permit for the fruit machine, a food business registration, and the safety certificates the insurer wants. Each has its own issuing body, its own fee and its own renewal cycle, and the conditions attached to the premises licence are the rules a licensing officer inspects against. This guide is written for the person who runs the venue rather than the lawyer who applied for the licence: how to get a personal licence, what a premises licence covers and costs, what the DPS actually has to do, how Challenge 25 and the refusals log protect the licence, how temporary event notices work, and what the other licences and permits cost and when they renew. The licensing articles here are for England and Wales under the Licensing Act 2003; Scotland has its own regime and is flagged where it differs. If you want the paperwork rather than the theory, the free licence renewal tracker template lists every licence a venue holds with space for its expiry date.