Personal licence

Personal licences allow you to sell alcohol on behalf of any business that has a premises licence or a club premises certificate in a similar way that a driving licence allows you to drive a car. You do not have to hold a personal licence to be employed in a pub or other business that sells alcohol. Premises licensed to sell alcohol must have a designated premises supervisor, who holds a personal licence. 

Anyone who does not hold a personal licence must be authorised to sell alcohol by a personal licence holder. Download the DPS Authorisation form (PDF).

You need to get a personal alcohol licence if you:

• want to authorise the sale of alcohol at a premises that holds a premises licence;
• want to get more than five temporary event notices in a year; and
• are a designated premises supervisor at a premises that holds a premises licence.

Relevant Offences

One of the requirements under the Licensing Act is that any personal licence holder appearing at Court for a relevant offence must declare that they hold a Personal Licence.  If the holder is then convicted of the offence and the court consider it relevant they can suspend or revoke the licence. Applicants and licence holders are also required to declare any convictions for equivalent relevant offences committed in any place other than England and Wales – these are known as ‘foreign offences’, along with civil penalties for immigration matters

Where the court was not aware of the existence of the Personal Licence, the Licence holder must as soon as reasonably practicable after the conviction, give notice to the Licensing Authority containing details of the conviction and any sentence imposed.  Failure to comply without reasonable excuse, is a summary offence punishable by a level 2 fine on the standard scale.

The list of relevant offences are regularly updated and listed in Schedule 4 Licensing Act 2003 (Gov.UK)

Pre-Application Advice Service

We offer a pre-application and application advice service to support your licensing application. The aim is to help you to mitigate any problems which may arise during the application process. However, (if applicable) our advice cannot prejudge the outcome of the licensing application, especially if representations are received and a hearing takes place before the Licensing Sub-Committee. For further details please consult our licensing contact us and application advice service page. 

Further Information

• Further information on personal licences and sale of alcohol (Gov.UK)
• List of accredited personal licence qualification providers (Gov.UK)
• DPS Authorisation form (PDF)