Personal Licences are issued by West Lothian Licensing Board for a period of 10 years. However, in terms of Section 87 of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, there is a legal requirement for personal licence holders to undertake refresher training and pass an exam to obtain a refresher training certificate within five years of the date of issue of their personal licence.
West Lothian Licensing Board will send a letter to all personal licence holders to notify them of their requirements to complete the refresher training. It is important if you have changed your name or address that you notify the Board within 30 days of any of these changes.
It is essential that you comply with these requirements should you wish to continue to hold your personal licence beyond the statutory deadline for you to produce evidence of your training to the Licensing Board.
If personal licence holders do not refresh their personal licence holder training within the specified period, the Board must revoke the personal licence. The consequences of the revocation could include the premises licence holder being no longer permitted to sell alcohol on their premises, unless appropriate steps are taken to name an alternative personal licence holder as the designated premises manager. In addition, personal licence holders, who have their licences revoked, will no longer be allowed to authorise sales of alcohol or conduct the mandatory staff training.
If you are in any doubt how to calculate the statutory deadlines involved in undertaking and passing the training and then producing evidence of the completed refresher training to the Licensing Board, you should take advice from a licensing solicitor immediately.
At the end of the second 5 year period from when your licence was granted you will need to undertake further refresher training and renew your licence, please see our Renewing Your Personal Licence webpage.
The first statutory deadline is the date 5 years after your licence was issued. You can calculate that by working back 5 years from the date your licence is due to expire. This is the date by which you need to pass a refresher training course.
The second statutory deadline is the date 3 months after the date by which you need to pass a refresher training course.
For example: if your licence is due to expire on 31 August 2028, then it was issued on 1 September 2018. The first deadline is 31 August 2023 so you must have passed the refresher training course by then, and the second deadline is 30 November 2023.
You need to examine your personal licence to work out what date your refresher training needs to be completed and passed by. You then need to book a place on a course with a training provider offering the required training. The Scottish Government published a document in December 2022 explaining what training is required The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 Liquor Personal Licence Holder Training Accreditation (opens new window)
You need to book a place on a course in sufficient time for you to sit and pass the required training within 5 years of the date of issue of your personal licence and for your training certificate to be issued by no later than that date. You will then have a period of 3 months to provide evidence of your training to West Lothian Licensing Board i.e. a copy of your training certificate must be received by the Board no later than 3 months after the expiry of the 5 year period.
For example: if your licence is due to expire on 31 August 2028, then it was issued on 1 September 2018. The first deadline for refresher training is 1 September 2023 so you must have passed the refresher training course by then, and the second deadline is 30 November 2023 which is the date by which you must have sent us a copy of the training certificate and returned your licence to be updated.
You can provide evidence of your training by either:
Emailing a copy of your training certificate to licensingboard@westlothian.gov.uk (opens new window) and posting your original personal licence to us for updating separately (the original (all pages), not a copy, is required); or
Posting a copy of your training certificate and your original personal licence to us (the original, not a copy is required). Please also complete and email or post a copy of the refresher training notification, a copy of the notification can be found in the downloads section of this webpage.
In terms of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 licensing boards must revoke the personal licence of any personal licence holder who has not sat and passed refresher training within 5 years of the date of issue of their personal licence and provided evidence of that to the Licensing Board no later than 3 months after the end of their relevant 5 year period
This means that the Licensing Board has no discretion and so, if this applies to you, your personal licence will be revoked.
Your personal licence will be revoked as complying with your second deadline makes no difference if you have missed your first deadline. You should not undertake refresher training after your first statutory deadline as, even if you sit and pass the course, by law your training certificate will be worthless
The second statutory deadline gives you up to 3 months to obtain your training certificate once you have sat and passed the refresher training course on time. However, you should obtain your training certificate and provide evidence of it to the Licensing Board as soon as possible after sitting and passing the course. You must avoid delay which could result in your having any difficulty in complying with the second statutory deadline i.e. providing evidence of your training to the Licensing Board after sitting and passing the course. If in any doubt you should take this up with the training provider who has provided your training just as soon as possible.
West Lothian Licensing Team does not provide training or have any connection with training providers. You or your employer must arrange for you to undertake the training required.
West Lothian Licensing Team will contact you to advise that you are required to produce your original personal licence within 14 days. Under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 failure to do so with reasonable excuse is an offence punishable by way of a fine.
You must notify Police Scotland if your personal licence has been lost or stolen as soon as possible and obtain a reference number. You then must apply to West Lothian Licensing Team for a replacement personal licence, a copy of the application can be found in the downloads section of this webpage. In addition, you should also make an application for a replacement personal licence if your licence has been damaged or destroyed.
If you wish to continue to hold your personal licence you should still make arrangements to sit and pass refresher training in accordance with the statutory deadlines which apply to you.
You are also required to inform West Lothian Licensing Board within a month of any change to your name or address. You should notify us as by email licensingboard@westlothian.gov.uk (opens new window) containing notice of the change and arrange to return your original personal licence to the board for updating within fourteen days of the notification. If you are unable to produce your licence you must provide a statement of reasons for failure to produce it.
If at the time of providing evidence of your personal licence refresher training and your original personal licence your name or address has changed within the last month, you should include this in your letter to West Lothian Licensing Team and your new name or address will be added to your personal licence at the same time as it is updated to contain details of your personal licence holder refresher training.
You can surrender your personal licence at any time by sending a letter to West Lothian Licensing Team containing a notice stating that you wish to surrender your licence. Either your original personal licence or a statement of reasons for failure to produce it must accompany the letter.
A list of personal licences granted by the West Lothian Licensing Board which have been revoked by the Board from 2 December 2014 due to the licence holders detailed in the list not having complied with the legal requirement to produce a certificate of refresher training to the Board within the required period, is available to view. This list will be updated with any additional names of personal licence holders who have had their licenses revoked on a regular basis List of Revoked Personal Licences[31KB]
