You need a premises licence or club premises certificate to:
- sell alcohol, or supply it to a club member
- provide regulated entertainment such as the performance of live music or showing a film
- provide hot food or drink between 11pm and 5am
For more information about regulated entertainment and late-night refreshment, read schedules 1 and 2 of the Licensing Act 2003.
If you do not have a licence, or if it does not cover these things, you need temporary permission to do any of them. You get this by submitting a Temporary Event Notice, which is sometimes referred to as a ‘Ten’. You could be fined and sent to prison if you do not have a licence or submit a notice for your event.
You also need a notice if you want to extend the permitted hours on your licence for an event.
A Temporary Event Notice must be submitted by an individual person – not by a business, club or organisation. The person giving notice is the proposed ‘premises user’. Businesses must identify somebody to be the proposed premises user.
Check our current licensing fees – you can pay when you apply.
Eligibility and limitations
You must be 18 or older to apply for a Temporary Event Notice.
Location and premises
You can submit a Temporary Event Notice for part of a building or a specific plot within a larger area of land. You should provide a clear description of the area in which you propose to hold your event.
Any licensable activities taking place outside the area specified would be unlawful. They could lead to prosecution.
If the event will take place on premises you do not own, you must have permission from the landowner. This includes public and private land, and not only buildings. If you want to hold an event on council-owned land, find out how to hire a park or open space.
Capacity
This maximum attendance of 499 people includes staff, organisers, stewards, and performers.
You need a premises licence if there will be 500 or more people at the event. Without it, the event would be unlawful and you would be liable to prosecution.
Timings and duration
If you hold a personal licence, you can apply for 50 notices in a calendar year. If you do not hold a personal licence, you can apply for five notices per year. Notices submitted by your associates count towards this limit.
You can hold 15 temporary events on a premises in a calendar year, covering no longer than 21 days between them.
If you submit notice for two or more events, at least 24 hours must pass between one ending and the next one starting. This is also the case for notices submitted by an associate of the premises user.
Supply of alcohol
If you supply alcohol for consumption on the premises, you must ensure that nobody leaves with it. If they do, you could be liable to prosecution.
If you supply alcohol for consumption off the premises, you must ensure that nobody drinks it before leaving.
Any alcohol must be sold by you or under your authority. If you breach this condition, you and the individual who sold it would be liable to prosecution.
Apply
You should submit your notice at least 10 working days before your event. In some cases you can do so later – see ‘late notices’ below.
It costs £21 to submit a notice – you can pay this when you apply.
You could be fined if you make any false statements in your application. You could face prosecution if you breach the terms of the notice.
Postal applications
If you cannot submit your notice online, contact us at licensing@cambridge.gov.uk. We will send you a printable application form.
You must send a copy each to us and to the police, and to any other relevant local authority. The standard deadlines and rules for late notices apply.
Late notices
You can submit notice no less than five working days in advance. This does not include the day you submit it and the day the event starts.
We will not allow any event to take place if we receive notice later than five working days in advance.
If you hold a personal licence, you can submit 10 late notices in a calendar year. If you do not hold a personal licence, you can submit two late notices in a calendar year. These count towards the number of notices you can submit each year.
Evaluation and response
We will contact you by email twithin two working days to confirm your application and provide details about your notice.
If you apply online we will send your notice to the police. We or the police will contact you if we have any questions or concerns about your event.
Objections and counter notices
We will serve a counter notice if you have submitted more notices than you or the premises are allowed. Your event cannot go ahead if we do this.
We will serve an objection notice if we or the police think your event will undermine our licensing objectives. We will do this within three working days of receiving your application.
If we serve an objection notice, we’ll hold a committee hearing. The committee will make a decision at least 24 hours before the beginning of the event. They can issue a counter notice if necessary.
If the objection relates to a late notice, there will be no hearing and you will not be able to appeal. The event will not be able to go ahead.
With your consent, we or the police can change your temporary event notice. If we do this, we’ll withdraw any objection notices.
Displaying the notice at the event
You must display a copy of the Temporary Event Notice at the premises during the event. Or you or a nominated person can keep it in your custody and display a notice stating who has it.
You must produce the notice for examination when asked to do so by the police, fire service or council officers. Failure to do so without reasonable excuse is an offence.
