Leisure Sector Update: Off sales easements

Welcome to the Harrison Drury Leisure Sector Newsletter. Your regular update on legal developments across the leisure, hospitality and tourism sector. Our aim is to keep you informed, prepared and ahead of the curve with insights tailored to support you and your business.

A timely reminder relating to the temporary off sales regulatory easement, which was introduced as a measure to support premises hit by Covid 19 and aimed to allow businesses to make better use of outdoor space for alcohol and dining. Broadly speaking the easement allows off sales to be made up until 23.00 when licensed premises are open for the purposes of selling alcohol for consumption on the premises. However, this permission will lapse on 31 March 2025 and there are no current proposals from the Government to extend the easement.

Therefore, if your premises has relied upon the off-sales easement and has benefited from doing so, it is likely that you will need to apply to vary your premises licence to allow off sales in order to continue.  Adding off sales to a licence would typically (although not always) require a full variation which requires a minimum of 28 days to be determined following submission.

We have a team of solicitors across a range of legal disciplines all with significant experience in supporting businesses in the leisure sector. Meet our leisure sector team to see how our team can help support you. If you wish to subscribe to our leisure newsletter, please do so here.

Samantha Faud