COMMENTARY ON SECTIONS General Section 52 – Determination of application for review
104.By virtue of this section, the authority must hold a hearing to consider and determine any application for review and any relevant representations made in respect of it. In order for representations to be ‘relevant’ they must have been made by the holder of the premises licence, an interested party or a responsible authority (see the definitions in section 13) and they must relate to the licensing objectives. 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 section provides that as a result of this review the authority must, if it considers it necessary for the promotion of the licensing objectives, either modify the conditions of the licence, exclude a licensable activity which the premises licence covers, remove the designated supervisor, suspend the licence for a period not exceeding 3 months or revoke the licence. If the licensing authority does not consider any of the steps to be necessary for the promotion of the licensing objectives, it will leave the licence untouched.
105.Subsection (10) requires the licensing authority to notify the outcome of a review and its reasons for so deciding to the licence holder, the applicant, the police and any person who has made relevant representations. Subsection (11) provides that the determination of an application for review will not take effect until any appeal has been disposed of, or if there is no appeal at the end of the period within which an appeal may be brought (see Schedule 5).