10.1 Conditions on premises licences should relate only to gambling, as considered appropriate in the light of the principles to be applied by the Council under section 153 of the Act. Accordingly, if other legislation places particular responsibilities or restrictions on an employer or the operator of premises, it is not necessary or appropriate to impose the same or similar duties in conditions on a premises licence issued in accordance with the Act. Similarly, where other legislation confers powers on inspection and enforcement agencies in relation to separate activities or concerns, the Act does not affect the continued use of such powers.

10.2 The Act provides that conditions may be attached to premises licences. As with other types of licence, conditions may be attached in a number of ways:

• they may attach automatically, having been set out in the Act
• they may attach through regulations
• they may be attached to operating and personal licences by the Commission, or
• they may be attached to premises licences by licensing authorities

10.3 Conditions may sometimes be general in nature (i.e. they attach to all licences or all licences of a particular class) or they may be specific to a particular licence.

10.4 The Council has no discretion to decide not to include, or to modify, any of the conditions set out in the Act.

10.5 Conditions that will be attached through regulations fall into two categories. The first are mandatory conditions under section 167 of the Act. This section provides for the Secretary of State to set out in regulations conditions that must be attached to premises licences.

10.6 The second category relates to default conditions, which may be imposed under section 168 of the Act. This section of the Act provides for the Secretary of State to make default conditions, which will apply unless the Council decides to exclude them using its powers under section 169 of the Act.

10.7 Both mandatory and default conditions may apply to all premises licences, to a class of premises licence or to licences for specified circumstances.

10.8 The Council has noted that any mandatory conditions set by the Secretary of State have been done so with the intention that no further regulation in relation to that matter is required. Therefore, it is considered extremely unlikely that the Council will need to impose individual conditions imposing a more restrictive regime in relation to matters that have already been dealt with by mandatory conditions. The Council will only consider doing so where there are regulatory concerns of an exceptional nature and any additional licence conditions will relate to the licensing objectives.

10.9 The Council has more flexibility in relation to default conditions, as it may decide to exclude a default condition, and substitute it with one that is either more or less restrictive. The Council is however aware that default conditions are intended to be the basic industry norm; and while given the requirements of section 153 of the Act, the Commission would expect default conditions to be excluded and replaced with less rigid conditions on a relatively irregular basis. The Council will ensure that they have clear regulatory reasons for excluding default conditions and replacing them with more restrictive ones.

10.10 The final category of conditions relates to those that may be imposed by the Council. Section 169 of the Act gives the Council:

• the ability to exclude from premises licences any default conditions that have been imposed under section 168, and
• the power to impose conditions on the premises licences that they issue

10.11 The Council is aware that they have a duty to act in accordance with the principles set out in section 153 of the Act, and as it is their aim to permit the use of premises for gambling, they will not attach conditions that limit the use of premises for gambling except where it is necessary as a result of the requirement to act:

• in accordance with this guidance, the Gambling Commission codes of practice or the licensing policy statement, or
• in a way that is reasonably consistent with the licensing objectives

10.12 The Council will not normally turn down applications for premises licences where relevant objections can be dealt with through the use of conditions.

10.13 Conditions imposed by the Council will be proportionate to the circumstances that they are seeking to address. In particular, the Council will ensure that the premises licence conditions are:

• relevant to the need to make the proposed building suitable as a gambling facility
• directly related to the premises and the type of licence applied for
• fairly and reasonably related to the scale and type of premises, and
• reasonable in all other respects

10.14 The Council has noted that it is the Commission’s view that the conditions necessary for the general good conduct of gambling premises will be those set as default and mandatory conditions by the Secretary of State. Therefore, a pool of additional conditions published by the Commission will not be necessary. The Council is however aware that, where there are specific risks or problems associated with a particular locality, or specific premises, or class of premises, the Council will be able to attach individual conditions to address this.

10.15 In relation to preventing disorder, the Council does have the ability under section 169 of the Act to impose licence conditions. These could include a requirement for door supervision as provided for in section 178. If a person employed on door supervision would be required to hold a licence issued by the Security Industry Authority (SIA), that requirement will have force as though it were a condition on the premises licence. An exemption to this requirement is granted to holders of casino and bingo premises licences under the Private Security Industry Act 2001 in respect of their in-house staff. However, contract staff employed as door supervisors at such premises will still need to be licensed by the SIA.

10.16 The Council will take decisions on individual conditions on a case-by-case basis.

10.17 The Council is aware that the Act sets out certain matters that may not be the subject of conditions. The relevant sections are:

• Section 169 (4), which prohibits the Council from imposing a condition on the premises licence which makes it impossible to comply with an operating licence condition
• Section 172 (10), which provides that conditions may not relate to gaming machine categories, numbers, or method of operation
• Section 170, which provides that membership of a club or body cannot be required by attaching a condition to the premises licence. The Act specifically removes the membership requirement for casino and bingo clubs and this provision prevents it being reinstated, and
• Section 171, which prevents the Council from imposing conditions in relation to stakes, fees, winnings or prizes