Alcohol & music
A paid bar at a birthday party, a raffle with wine, a band until midnight: each can need something the hall’s own licence does not cover. Switch this on and every booking form — your website, the hirers’ app and the Bookings screen — asks three things: will there be alcohol (none, given away, or sold), music (none, recorded, or live), and roughly how many people.
From your answers about the hall’s premises licence, HallPro tells the hirer there and then what they need. Selling alcohol the licence does not cover, or music after 11pm, needs a Temporary Event Notice (TEN): the hirer gives it to the council at least ten clear working days before (a “late TEN” five to nine days before, which is easier to refuse), for no more than 499 people, and it costs £21. HallPro works out both dates, leaving out weekends. Bank holidays are not known, so the words say to allow for them.
Giving alcohol away, or guests bringing their own, needs no licence, as long as none of it is paid for, even through the ticket price or a raffle. Music before 11pm for up to 500 people is mostly deregulated. Whether the hall holds TheMusicLicence is shown, so hirers know whether to ask.
Bookings that need a TEN are tagged on the Bookings screen and listed on Alcohol & music, with the date to give it by and its progress: Needed, Hirer has applied, Acknowledged by the council. When such a booking is confirmed, the hirer is emailed what to do. The count of TENs used this year is shown against the limits (15 events and 21 days a premises, in England and Wales), since the council will refuse more.
HallPro works out dates and points to the right paperwork. It is not legal advice: the hall’s licence says what it covers, and the council has the final word.
For example: The Cricket Club books the hall for a Saturday quiz night with a paid bar until 11.30pm. The hall’s licence allows sales until 11pm, so the club is told straight away that it needs a TEN, and the last day to give it to the council. The secretary marks it “Hirer has applied” when they say it is done.
Questions people ask
We don’t know what our licence covers.
It is on the licence summary that must be on display in the hall. If not, the council’s licensing team will tell you.
What if we tick nothing?
Then any sale of alcohol, and any music after 11pm, is shown as needing a TEN, which is the safe answer for a hall with no premises licence.
Does it apply in Scotland or Northern Ireland?
No. The rules and dates are those of England and Wales. Halls elsewhere should leave this switched off.