Add a Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS) to a premises licence

The DPS has overall day to day responsibility for a premises licensed under The Licensing Act 2003 and is said to supervise all sales of alcohol. The DPS should be present at the premises for the majority of the time that the premises are open.

Only one DPS can be nominated but if that person should leave your employment you cannot continue to sell alcohol until another personal licence holder has been nominated as a DPS. We recommend that more than one person connected with a premises holds a Personal licence for alcohol.

Apply

When you apply to vary your licence you will need to supply supporting information to include with your application, including:

• a copy of your premises licence
• DPS consent form (PDF) [112KB]  signed by the proposed Designated Premises Supervisor

You will also need to pay the fee of £23 during the application process.

If there is an existing Designated Premises Supervisor you must tell them that you are submitting an application to vary the DPS.

How your application is assessed

If the police have no objection then the Premises Licence will be varied to show the new DPS.

If you want the variation to take effect immediately, the premises licence variation to the DPS will also have effect during the application period, ie. the period between when the application is received by the licensing authority and when the application is granted, rejected or withdrawn.

If the Chief Officer of Police is satisfied that due to the exceptional circumstances of the case, granting the application would undermine the crime prevention objective of the Licensing Act 2003, he must give the Licensing Authority a notice (`an objection') stating the reasons why he is so satisfied.

The Chief Officer of Police must give that notice within the period of 14 days beginning with the day on which he is notified of the application.

Where the Police give such a notice, the Council will hold a committee hearing to consider the application, unless the authority, the applicant and the Chief Officer of Police who gave the notice agree that a hearing is unnecessary.

If the application is granted, the applicant must notify the person (if any) who has been replaced as the DPS.  If the application is rejected, the applicant must give the DPS notice to that effect.