The Act states that an application must be made to a licensing authority in whose area the premises are wholly or partly situated. In circumstances where the premises lie in more than one licensing authority’s area, the operator should make their application to just one of these authorities.

An application for a premises licence may only be made by persons (which includes companies or partnerships):

• who are aged 18 or over, and
• who have the right to occupy the premises, and
• who have an operating licence which allows them to carry out the proposed activity.
• who have applied for an operating licence to allow them to carry out the proposed activity. The premises licence cannot be determined until an operating licence has been issued.

There are some exceptions to the above if applying for a premises licence to allow a track to be used for betting. You can apply for an operating licence with the Gambling Commission.

Please complete the online application form. This needs to be submitted to the licensing authority, accompanied by the prescribed fee and a scale plan of the premises which complies with the regulations (available on the right-hand side of this page).

The applicant must publish a notice of their application at the premises for a minimum of 28 consecutive days. A notice must also be published in a newspaper or newsletter or local relevance, on at least one occasion within ten days of the application being made. Templates for these notices are available to download on the right-hand side of this page.

The applicant must give notice of the application to all responsible authorities (a list is available to download on the right-hand side of this page) within seven days of the application being made. The application is not valid is the relevant notifications are not made.

There are a number of access provisions outlined in the Gambling Act 2005 (Mandatory and Default Conditions) Regulations. Please refer to the Gambling Commission for guidance on how these may affect your premises.  

There are set mandatory and default conditions that will apply to your premises, these are set out in The Gambling Act 2005 (Mandatory and Default Conditions) (England and Wales) Regulations 2007. These regulations provide for various conditions to be attached to premises licences.

Mandatory conditions are those attached to premises licences under section 167. They will be attached to all specified types of premises licence, and can only be amended or excluded by further regulations made by the Secretary of State.

Default conditions are those attached to premises licences under section 168. They will be attached to all specified types of premises licence, unless the licensing authority excludes them.

The Act also restricts the circumstances in which children and young persons may participate in gambling or be on the premises where gambling is taking place. These restrictions are outlined below; please refer to the Gambling Commission for further guidance if required.

The licensing authority is obliged to consider representations made with respect to applications under the Gambling Act 2005. Representations can be made for or against applications for a premises licence by a responsible authority or ‘interested parties.’  Please refer to the Gambling Commission for definitions of these groups.

Representations must be made to the licensing authority within the 28 day consultation period.

Only representations which relate to one or more of the licensing objectives, or raise issues under the licensing authority’s policy statement, or the Gambling Commission’s guidance or codes of practice, can be considered.

The Council will disregard representations that are considered to be frivolous or vexatious.