Licensing reviews

Important: please read the following notes before downloading the application forms below.

Licensing Act 2003

The ability to review an existing licence is an important part of the Licensing Act so that any licensed premises operating in a manner that does not promote the licensing objectives, for example, noise from live music constantly escaping from premises late at night and causing disturbance to local residents – not promoting the 'prevention of public nuisance' objective - can be brought to the attention of the Licensing Authority.

The parties able to call a review are 'responsible authorities' (such as the Police, Fire Authority, Noise and Nuisance Team etc), and persons who live or are involved in a business in the licensing authority's area and who are affected by the operation of the premises ("other persons").

However, any application to have a premises licence reviewed must clearly show how the operation of the individual premises has not promoted, or has worked against, one or more of the Licensing Objectives:

1. the prevention of crime and disorder
2. public safety
3. the prevention of public nuisance
4. the protection of children from harm.

Once an application for a premises licence to be reviewed has been made, the Licensing Authority must advertise the application by placing a notice, of size A4 or larger, on, at or near the premises subject to the application.

The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham will also place a notice at the Town Hall advertising the application and place the relevant details on the council's website.

If you have subscribed to our email alerts you will receive notification of applications for premises licence reviews. You can sign up using the link below.

Sign up for email alerts

Responsible authorities and "other persons" as described above may also make representations relating to the premises subject of a review within 28 consecutive days of the original application being made.

The review application will trigger a hearing before the Licensing Committee.

The Licensing Act 2003 does not have the provisions to protect anonymity and therefore your name, address and any supporting information may be passed to the holder of the premise licence. Your name and your address (but not your house number) will be included with the papers for the Hearing, copies of which are available to the public. The committee papers and minutes of the Hearing will be published on our website. Under normal circumstances the published papers will include your name which may also be mentioned in the Hearing minutes.

Any person or body making the initial application for the review of a premises licence must serve notice of the application on the Licensing Authority, the holder of the premises licence and each of the Responsible Authorities. Contact details for the Licensing Authority and the Responsible Authorities are:

Licensing authority
Town Hall, King Street, London, W6 9JU, licensing@lbhf.gov.uk

Police
The Police Licensing Officer- Shepherd's Bush Police Station, 252 - 258 Uxbridge Road, London, W12 7JA, AWMailbox.Licensing@met.police.uk

Fire authority
Fire Safety Regulation, South West Area 4, Kensington and Chelsea Fire Safety Team, 169 Union Street, London SE1 0LL, FSR-AdminSupport@london-fire.gov.uk

Health and Safety authority
Town Hall, King Street, Hammersmith, London, W6 9JU- 020 8753 1081, foodandsafety@lbhf.gov.uk

Health and Safety Executive - if the premises doesn't fall under the jurisdiction of the Health and Safety authority (such as museums)
The Health and Safety Executive, Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge Road, London, SE1 9HS

Planning authority
Planning Authority- Town Hall, King Street, Hammersmith, London, W6 9JU - planning@lbhf.gov.uk

Noise and nuisance team
Town Hall, King Street, London W6 9JU - noise@lbhf.gov.uk

The Child Protection Body
Anna Carpenter, Safeguarding Review and Quality Assurance, 3rd floor, 145 King Street, W6 9JT, Anna.Carpenter@lbhf.gov.uk

The Weights and Measures Inspector
Town Hall, King Street, London W6 9JU - trading.standards@lbhf.gov.uk

Director of Public Health
King Street, London, W6 9JU- nicola.lang@lbhf.gov.uk

Home Office - Only for applications for premises licences involving alcohol or late night refreshment.
Alcohol Licensing Team, Lunar House, 40 Wellesley Road, Croydon CR9 2BY

The Licensing Committee will have the following options open to it having heard the evidence at the review:

• take no further action
• issue a warning
• modify the conditions of the licence
• exclude a licensable activity from the scope of the licence
• remove the designated premises supervisor
• suspend the licence for up to three months
• revoke the licence.

A decision to modify conditions or exclude a licensable activity can be made on a permanent or temporary basis (for up to three months) depending on the particular issues raised in the 'representations' and the evidence given at the review hearing.

Every decision the Licensing Committee and Sub-Committee make must relate directly to one or more of the four licensing objectives, having had regard to the application itself, the representations received, the relevant sections of the Secretary of State's Guidance and the Authority's own Statement of Licensing Policy.

See Secretary of State's Guidance and the Statement of Licensing Policy for further details.

The same procedure applies to applications for reviewing a Club Premises Certificate.

Application form

Application for the review of a premises licence or club premises certificate (pdf 102KB)

Gambling Act 2005 Reviews

A responsible authority or interested party may apply to the licensing authority for a review by the authority of a premises licence.

Any application to have a premises licence reviewed must clearly show how the operation of the individual premises has not promoted, or has worked against, one or more of the following objectives:

• preventing gambling from being a source of crime and disorder, being associated with crime and disorder, or being used to support crime
• ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way
• protecting children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling.

All premises licences are subject to mandatory conditions and in some cases default conditions, which restrict the operating hours under the licence. Mandatory conditions may not be varied or removed from the licence, however, application can be made to remove or vary the default conditions. Please refer to the Gambling Act 2005 (Mandatory and Default Conditions) (England and Wales) Regulations 2007 for details of the mandatory and default conditions which apply to the various licences.

Once an application for a premises licence to be reviewed has been made the licensing authority may start a review in relation to a particular premises licence or a particular class of premises licence.

Any person or body making the initial application for the review of a premises licence must serve notice of the application on the Licensing Authority, the holder of the premises licence and each of the Responsible Authorities. Contact details for the Licensing Authority and the Responsible Authorities are:

Licensing authority
Licensing Team, Town Hall, King Street, W6 9JU

The Gambling Commission
Victoria Square House, Victoria Square, Birmingham B2 4PB
info@gamblingcommission.gov.uk

HM Revenue and Customs
National Registration Unit, Portcullis House, 21 India Street, Glasgow, G2 4PZ
nru.betting&gaming@hmrc.gov.uk

Police
The Police Licensing Officer- Shepherd's Bush Police Station, 252 - 258 Uxbridge Road, London, W12 7JA

Fire authority
Fire Safety Regulation, South West Area 4, Kensington and Chelsea Fire Safety Team, 169 Union Street, London SE1 0LL

Health and Safety authority
PO Box 66532, London W8 9GJ

Health and Safety Executive - if the premises doesn't fall under the jurisdiction of the Health and Safety authority (such as museums)
The Health and Safety Executive, Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge Road, London, SE1 9HS

Planning authority
Fifth floor, Town Hall Extension, King Street, Hammersmith, London, W6 9JU

Noise and nuisance team
PO Box 66532, London W8 9GJ

The Child Protection Body
Anna Carpenter, Safeguarding Review and Quality Assurance, 3rd floor, 145 King Street, W6 9JT

The licensing authority will publish a notice on the licensing authority's internet website and at a place which is as near as reasonably practicable to the relevant premises or where it can be conveniently read by members of the public. The notice will be displayed for no less than 28 consecutive days.

It is for the Licensing Authority to decide whether the review application is valid and/or whether it is appropriate to carry out the review, given the circumstances. An application may be rejected if the licensing authority thinks that the grounds on which the review is sought:

• are not relevant to the principles that must be applied by the licensing authority in accordance with the licensing objectives, the Commission's codes of practice and this Guidance, or the licensing authority's statement of policy
• are frivolous
• are vexatious
• 'will certainly not' cause the licensing authority to revoke or suspend a licence or to remove, amend or attach conditions on the premises licence
• are substantially the same as the grounds cited in a previous application relating to the same premises
• are substantially the same as representations made at the time the application for a premises licence was considered.

The purpose of the review will be to determine whether the licensing authority should take any action in relation to the licence, namely:

• add, remove or amend a licence condition imposed by the licensing authority
• exclude a default condition imposed by the Secretary of State (for example, relating to opening hours) or remove or amend such an exclusion
• suspend the premises licence for a period not exceeding three months
• revoke the premises licence.

Application form

Application for a review of a premises licence under the Gambling Act 2005 (pdf 184KB)

What's the best way to prepare for a review?

It is important that a representation or a request for a review of a premises licence is not frivolous, vexatious or repetitious. In such cases, the law requires us to deny this representation or request for review. A repetitious representation is one that is made on the same grounds as an earlier representation and insufficient time has passed between the two applications, unless there are compelling reasons for the case.

In order to prepare for a successful review the following steps are recommended:

1. Speak to the person responsible for the management of the premises that are causing the nuisance and explain to them why the premises are causing a problem to you. Keep a record of this discussion and the outcome.
2. Contact our Enforcement Protection team whenever the premises are causing a nuisance so that an independent professional person is able to witness the problems you are experiencing. The contact number and address for this service can be found at the bottom of this page.
3. Keep a clear and factual record of when the activities in the premises cause a nuisance to you.
4. Detail such as: what is causing the nuisance, when it occurs, how often it occurs, how long the nuisance lasts for, how it affects you personally, and what you did to mitigate the circumstances.
5. Video, tape recording or photographic evidence is also particularly useful. It is important that this information is precise, in that the problem you are experiencing relates to the premises. A one-off event would not normally be considered as reason for a review of a premises licence.
6. If after a reasonable period of time you can demonstrate a pattern to show that the premises have not promoted, or has worked against, one or more of the licensing objectives, although the premises have received informal warnings, then it is time to call the licence in for review.