11.1 A premises licence may be reviewed by the Council of its own volition or following the receipt of an application for a review from an Interested Party or Responsible Authority.

11.2 Reviews initiated by the Council may be in relation to a particular class of premises licence or in relation to particular premises.

11.3 In relation to a class of premises, the Council may review the use made of premises and, in particular, the arrangements that premises licence holders have made to comply with licence conditions. When undertaking these general reviews, the Council will most likely be acting as a result of specific concerns or complaints about particular types of premises, which would cause them to want, for example, to look at the default conditions that apply to that category of licence.

11.4 In relation to particular premises, the Council may review any matter connected to the use made of the premises if it has reason to suspect that licence conditions are not being observed, or for any other reason (such as a complaint from a third party), which gives them cause to believe that a review may be appropriate.

11.5 The Council may (but need not) reject an application for a review if it thinks that the grounds on which the review is sought:

• are not relevant to the principles that must be applied by the Council in accordance with section 153 of the Act
• the grounds are frivolous
• the grounds are vexatious
• the grounds “will certainly not” cause the Council to revoke or suspend a licence or to remove, amend or attach conditions on the premises licence
• are substantially the same as the grounds cited in a previous review application relating to the same premises. In such instances the Council must take into account how much time has passed since the earlier application, or
• are substantially the same as representations made at the time the application for a premises licence was considered. Once again, the Council will take into account the period of time that has passed since the representations were made, but the underlying requirement is that the Council should not review the licence on the basis of the same arguments considered on the grant of the premises licence

11.6 Any decision the Council makes to grant a review will not amount to pre-judging the outcome of a review.

11.7 The purpose of the review of a premises licence is for the Council to decide whether it should take any action in relation to the licence and in doing so the Council will have regard to the principles set out in section 153 of the Act, as well as any relevant representations. In particular, the Council may take appropriate action on the grounds that a premises licence holder has not provided facilities for gambling at the premises. This is to prevent people from applying for licences in a speculative manner without intending to use them.