A Temporary Event Notice (TEN) is a notification given by an individual to the Licensing Authority giving notice of a proposal to use premises for one or more licensable activities during a period not exceeding 168 hours with less than 499 attendees. TENs replace the existing ‘occasional permissions’ and ‘occasional licences’ systems.
Licensable activities are:
- The sale of alcohol by retail
- The supply of alcohol by or on behalf of a club to, or to the order of, a member of a club
- The provision of regulated entertainment
- The provision of late night refreshment (i.e. The provision of hot food or drink for consumption on or off premises between 11pm & 5am.)
Criteria for TEN’s
A minimum of 10 working days notice is required by the Licensing Authority, Environmental Protection and the Police. Applicants are encouraged where possible to give notice earlier than the 10 working days minimum to ensure that the application is not rejected.
There is now provision to submit a late TEN up to 5 working days prior to the event in exceptional circumstances.
The person giving the temporary event notice is known as the premises user.
- The premises user must be over 18 years old
- Personal licence holders may give up to 50 notices per year
- Non personal licence holders may only give up to five notices per year
- Each event may last no more than 168 hours and there must be at least 24 hours between events.
- No premises may be used more than fifteen times per calendar year.
- No premises may be used for greater than 21 days per calendar year in total.
- No more than 499 persons attending the event
A TEN is treated as being from the same premises user even if it is given by an associate. The Act defines an associate as being a spouse, child, parent, grandchild, grandparent, brother or sister or their spouses or agent or employee of that person or their spouse.
Provided that the criteria set out above are met, only the Police or Environmental Protection may intervene to prevent an event covered by a TEN taking place or agree a modification of the arrangements for such an event and then only on crime prevention grounds. In circumstances where the above limits are exceeded the Licensing Authority must issue a counter notice and it is likely a full premises licence will be required.
