COMMENTARY ON SECTIONS PART 6: Personal Licences. Section 113 – Meaning of “relevant offence” and “foreign offence”
191.For the purposes of Part 6 of the Act, relevant offences are defined as offences listed in Schedule 4. In subsection (2) the Secretary of State is given a power (subject to the negative resolution procedure) to amend that list. Subsection (3) provides that for the purposes of Part 6 of the Act, a ‘foreign offence’ is defined as an offence (other than a relevant offence) under the law of anywhere outside England and Wales. The significance of designation as a ‘relevant offence’ is that a conviction for such an offence (or a comparable foreign offence), unless spent, must be taken into account by a licensing authority in its consideration of an application for the grant or renewal of a personal licence (see sections 120 and 121). If an existing personal licence holder is convicted of a relevant offence, his licence may be forfeited or suspended (see section 129).