Premises licence & licensing compliance checklist

What you need to know

The plain-English guidance that comes with this document.

• The premises licence is your licence to earn a living — protect it. Everything else flows from it. A breach of its conditions, or failing to uphold the four licensing objectives, can trigger a review by the council or police and end in conditions, suspension, or revocation. This checklist keeps the whole thing visible so nothing slips.
• Know your four objectives and four mandatory conditions cold. The objectives (crime & disorder, public safety, public nuisance, protection of children) are the test everything is judged against. The mandatory conditions (no irresponsible promotions, free water, an age-verification policy, small measures made available and known) apply to every alcohol licence in England and Wales — an inspector can check any of them on any visit. Displaying small measures on your price list and actually offering them is one people forget.
• DPS and personal licence: get the chain right. Your premises licence names a Designated Premises Supervisor who must hold a personal licence, and every alcohol sale must be authorised by a personal licence holder. If your DPS leaves, act quickly to appoint a new one — trading without a valid DPS puts the licence at risk.
• Two offences to drill into every member of staff: serving the drunk, and proxy sales. It's a criminal offence to sell alcohol to someone who is drunk, and to sell to an adult buying for someone underage. These sit alongside underage sales as the things that get pubs into trouble. They're covered in your responsible service policy and belong in the refusals log.
• The other licences trip pubs up more than the alcohol one. Playing music without TheMusicLicence, showing football on a domestic Sky card, or running more than two gaming machines without a permit are all common, easily-caught breaches. Tick them off honestly.
• Martyn's Law is coming and pubs are in scope more than they realise. The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 applies where 200 or more people may be present — and a pub with a busy garden, a function room or event nights can easily reach that. The standard tier (200–799) is about low-cost preparedness — knowing what to do, training staff, registering with the SIA — not expensive kit. It's expected to take effect around April 2027, so the sensible move now is to work out your capacity and start preparing.
• This is a professionally structured overview — confirm the specifics for your premises and area. Your actual licence conditions, local cumulative-impact or late-night policies, and any early-morning restriction orders are set locally. Read your own licence, check with your licensing authority, and keep this under review — licensing is one of the more actively-changing areas.