Commentary on Sections Part 1.Licensing Section 7: Major events
This section introduces new Articles 48A and 48B in the Licensing Order in relation to major event orders.
Article 48A (Extension of permitted hours for major events) gives the Department a power to designate an event which will attract significant interest as a major event.
The Department is required to consult appropriate persons and, having done so, has the power to vary permitted hours for the event, for specified premises, outside of what is currently available under the Licensing Order.
Article 48B (Major event order: conditions) gives the Department a power to impose or vary conditions for on or off-sales in any major event order, and adds an offence (punishable by a fine up to £1,000) for failing to comply with those conditions.  It allows the Department to permit off-sales, only from the place or premises at which the event is taking place (provided that is not where an occasional licence is in force which was granted to the holder of a restaurant licence).
Sixty minutes “drinking-up time” is permitted under a major event order, as is the removal of off-sales following the end of permitted hours. The regulation making power in section 6 which allows drinking-up time to revert to 30 minutes is extended to Article 48B.
Subsection (2) makes a consequential amendment to Part 1 of Schedule 10A to the Licensing Order (penalty points for offences punishable with level 3 fine), to include the offence under the new Article 48B.