A Guide to the Licensing Act 2001( Alcohol & Entertainment Licensing law )

Jeremy Allen is a Founding Partner of Poppleston Allen, Licensing Solicitors, Nottingham.

Written by the country's only professor of licensing law and the principals of the 'UK's foremost niche licensing practice' this eagerly awaited volume, published in May, lives up to the reputation of its authors. Primarily written by Colin Manchester, as a replacement for his excellent Entertainment and Licensing Law and Practice, it benefits from the practical contribution provided by Poppleston and Allen. The volume's 788 pages (with 556 pages of text) provide a first-rate working guide through the mysteries and detail of the new law/ The Act and regulations, but not the Secretary of State's Guidance, are reproduced in full. There is much useful background material, such as extracts from parliamentary debates, which aid both understanding and interpretation of the new provisions. Solicitors Journal, 10.06.05, Vol 149. The authors of this book bided their time, and it has certainly paid off. No one who wishes to practise licensing law under the new system can hope to do so without the help of a comprehensive work providing detailed explanation of the Act against the background of both the statutory instruments, which provide crucial detail to the working of the Act and the government's statutory guidance, upon which local authorities rely in drafting their own local statements of licensing policy. This book succeeds in providing this. This book is a comprehensive work, dealing with every aspect of the new scheme and exploring in considerable detail each aspect of the new law, such as the licensing objectives, the scope of licensable activities through to the various types of licence. It includes sections on the impact of Human Rights Act 1998, appeals and enforcement, and there is a very important chapter on the impact of the statutory guidance on day-to-day decisions of the licensing authorities. It also covers the complex transitional provisions that will affect everyone who currently holds a justices' licence. The full text of the act and the major regulations are included and, importantly, each aspect of the new system is fully examined by considering stature, regulations and guidance together. This book could well become a definitive work on the new system, possibly supplanting some more established - and more costly - works. The key to its future success will be regular updates, which will certainly be needed to keep pace with what is bound to be a rapidly evolving area of law. Julian Peskett, New Law Journal, 15 July 2005.