Leisure Sector Update: Licensing Hours Extended for England v Mexico Match
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World Cup Update: Licensing Hours Extended for England v Mexico Match
The Government has today confirmed that pubs will be permitted to operate until 05:00 this coming Sunday evening / Monday morning in order that they can show England’s last-16 World Cup match against Mexico, which has a 01:00 (UK time) kick-off.
The move will result in an automatic extension to licensing hours for sales of alcohol and late night refreshment for those already licensed for alcohol sales to 22:00 and will therefore remove the need for a Temporary Event Notice (TEN) to be in place. Whilst we have already had some frustrations voiced by operators who had planned in advance and incurred the time and effort to get a TEN in place, the news will be welcomed by those operators who had missed the deadline by which a TEN needed to be submitted, which passed before England had secured passage to the last-16 with their win against Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday.
The Order facilitating the extension also brings forward the start of extended hours for the final on Sunday 19th July forward to 22:00 rather than the previous time of 23:00 given the concerns that 23:00 would cause issues for operators with the old Sunday licensing hours.
As with similar arrangements to date, the extension does not apply to off-sales or to regulated entertainment and given the short notice with which the extension has been put in place, care should be taken to properly risk assess plans, ensure compliance with conditions and ensure that the licensing objectives are upheld.
The press release from the Government can be viewed here.
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