COMMENTARY ON SECTIONS General Section 31 – Determination of application for provisional statement
78.Subsections (1) and (2) provide that unless relevant representations are made in respect of an application for a provisional statement, a licensing authority will be required to issue a provisional statement stating that no relevant representations have been made.
79.Subsection (3), together with subsections (6) and (7), provide that where relevant representations are made licensing authorities are required to hold a hearing. In order for representations to be ‘relevant’ they must have been made by an interested party or a responsible authority (see the definitions in section 13) and they must relate to the likely effect on the licensing objectives if a premises licence were to be granted in the form sought if the premises were constructed or altered in the way proposed in the schedule of works (see section 29). If the representations are made by an interested party there is a further requirement that the licensing authority does not consider them to be frivolous or vexatious. If it does, the authority is to explain its decision to the person who made the representations. The need for a hearing can be dispensed with by agreement of the authority, the applicant for the provisional statement and all of the parties who have made relevant representations.
80.When a hearing is held (or dispensed with as indicated above), the licensing authority must decide whether, if the premises were constructed or altered in the way proposed in the schedule of works and if a premises licence was sought for those premises, it would consider it necessary for the promotion of the licensing objectives to attach conditions to the licence, to rule out any of the licensable activities applied for, to refuse to accept the person specified as premises supervisor, or to reject the application. The licensing authority must then notify its decision (together with its reasons for considering that it would be necessary to impose any condition or restriction in respect of a premises licence or reject an application for a premises licence) to the applicant, the police and any person who has made relevant representations about the application.