North Ayrshire Licensing Board is the statutory licensing authority responsible for all Alcohol and Betting Licences in North Ayrshire. The Board is constituted under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 and Gambling Act 2005.
North Ayrshire Council elects Councillors to be Members of the Board. The Convenor of the Licensing Board is Councillor Ronnie McNicol. The Clerk to the Licensing Board is the council's Senior Legal Services Manager, Aileen Craig.
Please read the North Ayrshire Licensing Board Guide to Information (Word, 75kb).
View the current list of Premises, Premises Licence Holders and Premises Managers in North Ayrshire (Excel, 102kb) as of 8 July 2020.
Licensing Board Dates
The Licensing Board normally meets in the Council Chambers, Cunninghame House about 5 times a year.
During the Coronavirus emergency, scheduled meetings in 2020 are cancelled.
Many licensing decisions can be made by the Clerk without needing a board meeting (this arrangement is called "Delegated Powers"). The Law has a List of decisions which are reserved to the Licensing Board.
This includes decisions to:
- grant Premises Licences
- make Major Variations to Premises Licences
The list is prescribed by Law and the Licensing Board cannot change it.
The board is considering alternative procedures to allow cases on the List to be dealt with.
During the Coronavirus emergency, we have limited capacity to process applications. All board members and licensing staff are working from home. Before you apply for something on the List we ask you to consider whether or not it is essential that there be a board decision before the end of the Coronavirus emergency.
If you consider that your Application for something on the List is essential, you should prepare an Application and lodge it even if there is no immediate prospect of the board being able to make a decision. The reason for this suggestion is that, if the board later adopts alternative procedures, we can prepare the Application for the board to deal with as soon as possible.
View the Licensing Board meeting schedule, minutes and related documents.
Statement of Reasons
If the Licensing Board is asked to issue a statement of reasons explaining a decision, in addition to notifying affected parties. Please view our statement of reasons page for more information.
Licensing Policy Statement
The Licensing Board has adopted a Licensing Policy Statement under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 for the period 2018-22.
The documents which the Board considered before adopting the Licensing Policy Statement 2018-22 were:
- (a) Alcohol Facts and figures (Word, 22kb)
- (b) Traffic Light Chart (Excel, 21kb)
- (c) Monitoring Report 2018 (Alcohol-specific Deaths) (Excel 200kb)
- (d) Alcohol Related Harm in Scotland 2016 (PDF, 137kb)
- (e) Alcohol Information - North Ayrshire (PDF, 900kb)
- (f) Alcohol Outlet and Harm (PDF, 255kb)
- (g) Licensing Indicators (Excel, 2mb)
- (h) Alcohol Statistics (Scotland and NA) (Excel, 16kb)
- (i) Alcohol-related crimes in NA (Police)(Excel, 17kb)
- (j) Fires and Alcohol-related incidents (Word, 209kb)
- (k) Premises Licences in North Ayrshire (Excel, 13kb)
- (l) NHSAA - Response to LPS consultation (Word, 51kb)
- (m) AFS - Response to LPS consultation (PDF, 323kb)
- (n) AFS - Alcohol Outlet Availability and Harm in North Ayrshire (PDF, 704kb)
- (o) LLF - Response to LPS consultation (PDF, 80kb)
- (p) Equalities Screening (Word, 90kb)
Documents (a) to (k) relate to the proposed Overprovision policy
Documents (l) to (o) are the submissions made by respondents to the consultation process
Document (p) was completed as part of the board's legal duty under the Equality Act 2010
The Board also considered:
Overprovision
The Board may refuse a licence due to an overprovision of licensed premises in any one area.
The Overprovision assessment for the Licensing Policy Statement 2018-22 is contained in the background documents listed above, mainly (k) Premises Licences in North Ayrshire (Excel, 13kb)
Standard Conditions
When premises are granted a new licence, these are subject to a set of conditions. Standard Conditions are reviewed by the council and a new edition of the Conditions is published.
Premises are only controlled by the set of Conditions it was given at the time the licence was granted. Your licence is not affected if the Board publishes a new edition. Our Standard Conditions:
Please note: the Licensing Board may apply the newest edition to older Licences - this might happen if:
- during Review procedure - the Board might uphold a complaint against the Premises and decide to vary some of the Licence Conditions
- during Variation proceedings (where the licence holder asks the Board to change part of the licence) the Board may decide to update the particular Premises' conditions to the newest edition
In either case the individual Licence Holder can make representations to the Board.
Signs and Notices
The following are mandatory signs and notices under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005. If you are unsure as to which signs you are required to display, in relation to your Licence, please contact the Licensing Office.
- Section 110 Notice (Word, 24kb)
- Challenge 25 (PDF, 102kb)
- Challenge 25 Staff Declaration (PDF, 22kb)
- Agent Sales Warning (PDF, 128kb)
- Alcohol Related Advice (Word 24kb)
- Local Neighbourhood (Word 24kb)
- No Drinking in Public Places (PDF, 59kb)
- No Entry under 18s (Word 24kb)
- Offsale on sale (Word, 24kb)
- Outdoor Drinking Areas (PDF, 9kb)
- Additional Outdoor Drinking Areas as of 27 July (PDF, 6kb)
- Premises Manager Authorisation Notice (Word 24kb)
- Refusals List (Word, 72kb)
- Staff Training Record (PDF, 68kb)
- Toilet and Capacity checks (PDF, 66kb)
Objections and Complaints about Licensed Premises
The Board has stated advice (PDF, 110kb) on making comments and complaints. How to make a Complaint/Premises Licence review application (Word, 22kb) to the Licensing Board, under Section 36 of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005.
Mainstreaming Equality and Equality Outcomes
Information on the Board's equality outcomes and the progress it has made to mainstream equality is contained in the Board's
Equality and Mainstreaming Report 2013-2017 and Equality Outcomes Report 2017-2021 (PDF, 151kb) and Equality and Mainstreaming Report 2017-2019 (PDF, 135kb)
Minimum unit pricing compliance statistics
Annual Functions Report under Section 9A of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005
Annual Financial Report under Section 9B of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005