Statutory alcohol licensing shutdown period

In accordance with the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 there will be a shutdown period for alcohol licensing every year from 20 December to 15 January the following year. This means that the days within this period will not be classified as working days which affects the statutory timeframes such as objection period, agencies reporting, special licence timeframes etc.

As a result, please note that alcohol related application received after the second week of November of each year are unlikely to be processed before the yearly shutdown period.

Further to this, we recommend that Special Licence Applications for special events taking place during the period December to February should be submitted by the end of October to ensure it is processed prior to the shutdown period.

Renewals over the shutdown period:

• Applications for the renewal of a manager’s certificate can be made any time prior to its expiry date
• Applications for the renewal of an On, Off or Club licence should still be lodged at least 20 working days prior to expiry

Renewal applications received after the second week of November are unlikely to be completed until after 15 January of the following year. However, if the renewal application has been lodged on time, the licence or manager’s certificate continues to be in force until the renewal application has been determined, even if it is past the expiry date.