How to get a liquor licence for a restaurant in the UK

The fit-out is booked, the menu is nearly done, and you have just realised that without a licence you cannot pour a glass of wine on opening night.

To sell alcohol in a restaurant in England and Wales you need a premises licence from your council and a designated premises supervisor (DPS) who holds a personal licence. The premises licence costs £100 to £635 to apply for, depending on your rateable value, plus an annual fee of £70 to £350. The application runs a 28-day public consultation, so start well before you open. Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate systems.

Refusal is rare but not random. Our analysis of the Home Office's latest statistics finds councils refused about 1 in 40 new premises licence decisions, and refused nearly 3 times as often inside cumulative impact areas as outside. This guide covers the licences, fees, odds, steps, timing and a checklist. ("Liquor license" is the common search; in the UK you need a premises licence and a personal licence.)

Last checked: 4 November 2026.

What licences does a restaurant need to sell alcohol?

In England and Wales, alcohol sales are licensed under the Licensing Act 2003. gov.uk's alcohol licensing guidance sets out the parts:

• Premises licence. Covers the building and what happens there: alcohol, the hours, and any late-night refreshment or regulated entertainment. Granted by the council's licensing authority.
• Personal licence. Held by an individual aged 18 or over, usually after an accredited qualification. It lets that person authorise alcohol sales.
• Designated premises supervisor (DPS). The person named on the premises licence with day-to-day responsibility. The DPS "will need to hold a valid personal licence", and there is only one DPS for each premises, according to gov.uk's premises licence guidance.
• Temporary event notice (TEN). For one-off events.

You may need the premises licence even without alcohol. Serving hot food or hot drinks between 11pm and 5am is "late night refreshment", and that needs a licence too. So does some regulated entertainment, such as live music above certain limits.

Which application fits your situation (England and Wales):

Sources: the Home Office's section 182 guidance (updated 3 November 2026), paragraphs 4.63, 8.59 and 8.65 to 8.101, and council fee pages such as Hackney's for the £89. The easement that let on-sales licences sell to take away ended on 31 March 2025, so check your licence if you still sell wine to go.

Across the UK:

How much does a liquor licence cost in England and Wales?

Fees are set nationally in the Licensing Act 2003 (Fees) Regulations 2005 and depend on your premises' non-domestic rateable value. Councils cannot change them, and they have not risen since 2005. This table is from a council's 2026/27 fee schedule (Basingstoke and Deane), which reproduces the statutory figures.

Alcohol-led venues pay more in Bands D and E. If the premises are used exclusively or mainly to sell alcohol to drink on site, the Band D fees double (£900 application, £640 a year) and Band E fees triple (£1,905 and £1,050). Most food-led restaurants are not caught.

New premises not yet rated go in Band C. Find your rateable value on gov.uk's Find a business rates valuation. Band B is the typical case: it covers 110,289 of the 222,511 premises licences in England and Wales, about half, according to the Home Office figures below.

Other statutory fees: personal licence £37, temporary event notice £21, transfer or DPS change £23 each, and change of name or address or a replacement licence £10.50.

Worked example. A 50-cover restaurant with a rateable value of £28,000 is in Band B.

Add the costs outside the fee table: the personal licence course, a basic criminal record check, the newspaper advert and any paid plan drawing. Get quotes. A licensing solicitor, if you use one, is usually the largest cost.

Will your premises licence application be refused?

Probably not, unless your premises sit in one of the 184 cumulative impact areas, where councils consider the density of licensed premises already causes problems.

New premises licences, England and Wales, year to 31 March 2026:

Source: our analysis of the Home Office's Alcohol licensing, England and Wales, April 2025 to March 2026 (published 1 October 2026), tables 5 and 6. "Outside" is all areas minus cumulative impact areas. A grant or refusal can relate to an application from an earlier year, so the last column is a rate per decision, not exact odds.

What it means for you:

• Check for a cumulative impact area before you sign a lease. The council's statement of licensing policy sets out where it applies. Inside one, refusal is nearly 3 times as likely, and you are expected to explain why your application is an exception to the policy (section 182 guidance, 8.44).
• Losing a licence is rarer still. Councils completed 542 reviews across 222,511 premises licences; 250 ended in revocation and 118 removed the DPS.
• In London, the guidance now makes the Greater London Authority a responsible authority, and the Mayor can call in decisions of strategic importance.

How do I apply for a liquor licence (premises licence)?

1. Check planning first. Licensing and planning are separate. A licence does not give you planning permission for your use or hours.
2. Find your rateable value to work out your fee band. If you run a pub, the same figure decides your rates relief; see our pub business rates guide.
3. Choose your DPS. They need a personal licence and must sign a consent form.
4. Write your operating schedule. Licensable activities, hours for each, and how you will promote the four licensing objectives: preventing crime and disorder, public safety, preventing public nuisance and protecting children from harm.
5. Draw a plan to scale (1mm to 100mm) showing exits, fire safety equipment, the bar and the alcohol areas. It need not be professional.
6. Apply to the council for your area, with the fee, the plan and the DPS consent. Copies go to the responsible authorities, such as the police, fire service, planning, environmental health and trading standards.
7. Advertise. Display the blue notice at the premises for 28 consecutive days, and place a notice in a local newspaper, usually within 10 working days of applying. Council pages warn that the wrong wording can restart the 28 days, so copy your council's template exactly.
8. Wait for representations. If nobody objects during the 28 days, the licence is granted. If the police, another authority or a resident objects, the council holds a hearing.
9. Display the summary of your licence at the premises once granted, and pay the annual fee on each anniversary.

Every licence also carries the national mandatory conditions, such as an age verification policy and free tap water on request. Train staff before day one.

Environmental health, one of the responsible authorities, is also the team that inspects your food safety records, so have your Safer Food, Better Business pack running before you open.

How long does it take to get a premises licence?

The 28-day consultation is the fixed part. Before it, allow time to get a DPS through a personal licence course, draw the plan, agree conditions with the police if you can, and prepare the advert. After it, a hearing adds time if anyone objects, and the council should give its decision within five working days of the hearing (section 182 guidance, 9.40).

The practical rule: do not plan your opening for day 29, and build the licence into the opening timeline of your restaurant business plan. Speak to the police licensing officer before you submit: agreeing conditions in advance, such as CCTV or a last-entry time, settles many objections without a hearing.

If the licence is not ready, a temporary event notice can cover a launch event, within these limits from gov.uk's TEN guidance:

TENs are for events, not a way to trade for months while you wait. The police and environmental health can object within three working days. Give standard notice if you can: in the year to March 2026, counter notices blocked 1.7% of late TENs (513 of 29,812) but 0.3% of standard ones (334 of 106,157), the Home Office figures show.

Check with a licensing solicitor or your council for your situation.

How do I get a personal licence?

In England and Wales you apply to the council where you live, not where the restaurant is. You need:

• to be 18 or over;
• an accredited licensing qualification (gov.uk names the BIIAB Level 2 Award for Personal Licence Holders as an example);
• a basic criminal record check, which many councils want dated within the last month;
• proof of your right to work in the UK;
• passport photos and the £37 fee.

Since 2015 personal licences in England and Wales no longer need renewing. A licence stays valid unless it is surrendered, suspended or revoked.

Liquor licences in Scotland

Scotland runs a separate system under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005. The local licensing board notifies neighbours and holds a hearing on each premises licence application, and every licensed premises needs a premises manager with a personal licence. The Scottish Government's alcohol licensing guidance covers the system.

Key differences from England and Wales:

• Supporting certificates. Under section 50, a full premises licence application needs a planning certificate and a building standards certificate, plus a food hygiene certificate if you serve food.
• Overprovision. A board can refuse a licence if it considers the area already has too many licensed premises.
• Personal licences last 10 years (section 77). Renew in the window from 12 months to 3 months before expiry (section 78). Send the board evidence of refresher training within 3 months after each five-year period, or it must revoke the licence (section 87).
• Occasional licences replace TENs.
• Annual fees are due by 1 October.

Scottish fees. Each board sets its premises fees, up to the maximums in the Licensing (Fees) (Scotland) Regulations 2007 (SSI 2007/553). Category depends on the premises' rateable value:

The regulations fix some fees outright: £50 for a personal licence, £10 for an occasional licence, £10 for an extended hours application and £20 for a minor variation. A personal licence renewal costs £50 (2018 amending regulations). Boards in practice charge the maximums: Aberdeenshire's fee schedule (February 2026) lists exactly these amounts. Check your own board's fee before budgeting.

Liquor licences in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland's alcohol licences are granted by the county court under the Licensing (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, as amended by the 2021 Act. A restaurant is its own licence category: alcohol sales must be "ancillary" to the restaurant business, and off-sales are not allowed. Applications run through court notices and a court date, so speak to a Northern Ireland licensing solicitor before you commit to premises.

Licence application checklist (England and Wales)

PREMISES LICENCE CHECKLIST

Before you apply
[ ] Cumulative impact area? Check the council's licensing policy
[ ] Planning permission covers restaurant use and your hours
[ ] Rateable value found; fee band: ___  fee: £___
[ ] DPS chosen; personal licence held or course booked
[ ] DPS consent form signed
[ ] Operating schedule drafted: activities, hours, conditions
[ ] Plan drawn to scale (1mm to 100mm) with exits, fire equipment,
    bar and alcohol areas
[ ] Pre-application chat with the police licensing officer

Applying
[ ] Application, plan, consent and fee sent to the council
[ ] Copies to every responsible authority (if applying on paper)
[ ] Blue notice up on day one; photograph it with a date
[ ] Newspaper notice placed within the council's deadline
[ ] 28-day end date in the diary: ___

After grant
[ ] Licence summary displayed; full licence kept on site
[ ] Age verification policy written; staff trained and signed
[ ] Refusals book or log started
[ ] Annual fee date in the diary: ___

For the rest of your pre-opening list, see how to open a restaurant in the UK.

Can TablePort handle this for you?

Not the licence itself. TablePort helps with the opening work that runs alongside it:

1. Import your menu. Upload a photo, PDF or pasted text, including the wine list, and review the draft before publishing.
2. Set up quickly. A typical restaurant is set up in about 15 minutes on supported iPads, Android tablets and phones, so the till is not the last job before opening.
3. Comps, voids and refunds recorded. Each one is logged with the reason and the person, which gives your DPS a clear record of what happened behind the bar.

The limit: TablePort does not prepare or submit licence applications. Your council or solicitor handles that. See the POS page.