Apply for a minor variation to a premises licence

What changes you need to tell us about

You need to apply for a minor variation of a licence if you:

• Make small changes to the premises plan
• Add regulated activities that aren’t contentious
• Extend regulated activities that aren’t contentious
• Remove outdated conditions.

When you cannot use a minor variation

You need to apply for a full variation if you:

• Extend the period for which the licence has effect
• Vary the premises substantially
• Change the designated premises supervisor
• Start selling alcohol when you previously hadn’t
• Start selling alcohol between 11pm and 7am when you previously hadn’t
• Increase the times at which you sell alcohol

Fee

The fee for a minor variation is £89.

How to apply

You will need to:

Include the premises licence or the relevant part of the premises licence

If you cannot provide a premises licence, you need to explain why.

Advertise your application

You need to advertise your application on site after you submit your application. You don’t need to

• advertise your application in a local newspaper
• submit your advertisement with the form.

How to advertise your application.

Apply online

Once you have gathered this information, you will need to register or log in to our customer portal to apply online.

When making your application, select that you want to make a minor variation.

If you have already started an application and need to complete it, log in to My Torbay and choose ‘pending forms’ from the menu. When making your application, select that you want to make a full variation.

What happens next

Objections

Responsible authorities and interested parties will have 10 days to comment in support or against the application. This is called 'making a representation'. Any representations must relate to one of the four licensing objectives. We can ignore or reject comments or objections if we think those comments are:

• meant to cause trouble
• silly or trivial
• just repeating the same thing again and again

If no objections are received, we will grant the premises licence variation as requested. This will usually be within 5 days of the end of the 10 day consultation period.

If any objections are received, the application will have to go to a committee hearing. A small group of Torbay councillors will then hear all the facts and make a decision.

We will notify you of any objections and give you the opportunity to attend the hearing in person. We will send you a letter with a ‘notice’ telling you the time and place. A second notice is enclosed which you must return. At the hearing, the committee will either approve, add conditions or reject the notice.

Appeals

If you disagree with the licensing committee’s decision, you can appeal to your local magistrates’ court. You must do this within 21 days of the decision.