Overview Amendments of the Licensing Act 2003 Section 121: Power for licensing authorities to set fees
353.The Licensing Act 2003 contains various powers to make regulations to prescribe fees.  These fees include (but are not limited to) the:
354.The powers to prescribe fees in relation to premises licences and club premises certificates are contained in sections 55 and 92.
355.In all cases, the current powers enable regulations to prescribe a fixed fee for each fee category, although there is power to prescribe different levels of fee within a category; for example, the fee to accompany an application for the grant of a premises licence or club premises certificate is determined by reference to the rateable value of the premises to which it relates, or whether the activities carried on at the premises primarily comprise the supply of alcohol for consumption on the premises.  Regulations have been made to prescribe those fees: the Licensing Act 2003 (Fees) Regulations 2005.
356.Section 121 amends the Licensing Act 2003 by inserting sections 197A and 197B which enable regulations, instead of prescribing the amount of a fee, to provide that the amount of a fee is to be determined by the licensing authority to whom it is payable.
357.Section 197A preserves the power of the Secretary of State to prescribe the amount of a fee (subsections (1) and (2)) but also enables the Secretary of State to provide that licensing authorities may instead determine the amount of a fee payable to them (subsection (3)).  Under subsection (7), where the amount of a fee is set by a licensing authority, it must relate to both the licensing authority’s costs in so far as these are referable to the discharge of the function to which the fee relates (for example, the costs referable to an application for a licence: see section 197B(2)) and the licensing authority’s general costs under the Licensing Act 2003 (for example, the costs of exercising one of a number of licensing functions under that Act in relation to which a fee is not specifically payable: see section 197B(3)). Under subsection (2), these are also matters the Secretary of State may take into account when setting the fee.
358.Subsections (4) and (5) enable regulations to specify constraints on a licensing authority’s power to determine the amount of a fee (for example, a maximum fee for a specific fee category).  Subsection (6) enables a licensing authority to determine a different fee for each fee category that may be specified in regulations and requires a licensing authority to publish the amount of a fee as determined from time to time.
359.Section 197B(4) enables regulations, in a case where the amount of a fee is prescribed by the Secretary of State or provision is made for a licensing authority to determine a fee, to make different provision for different licensing authorities or descriptions of licensing authority. This allows the Secretary of State to prescribe fees in regulations for some licensing authorities but provide for other licensing authorities to themselves determine those kinds of fees.
360.Section 121 also provides that, in a case where a licensing authority may determine the amount of a fee under section 197A, it cannot delegate the exercise of this function to a licensing officer by virtue of sections 10(1) and (2) of the Licensing Act 2003.