Check which extra licences your hospitality business needs

These rules are for England and Wales. A premises licence covers alcohol, regulated entertainment and late-night refreshment at your venue. Each of the other activities here needs a separate permission, so work out which ones you plan to offer.

Gaming machines in a licensed pub or bar

Neither route covers category A or B machines.

If your machines pay cash prizes, register for Machine Games Duty with HMRC before you make them available to play. If you are a pub tenant, the duty is yours, not the pub owner's.

Raffles and lotteries

Some draws need no registration. A raffle held alongside a fundraising event, where it is not the main attraction, is exempt if it is promoted wholly for a purpose other than private gain, so a venue cannot run one to boost its own takings. A lottery limited to the members of a society and their guests is exempt too.

Civil weddings and civil partnerships

Apply to the council with details of you and the venue, a plan showing the rooms and any outdoor boundary, your public liability insurance certificate and the fee.

One-off events

A temporary event notice (TEN) lets you carry out a licensable activity at an event on premises with no licence, or an activity your existing licence does not cover, such as a wedding reception at a community centre. The limits are:

You must be at least 18, and you apply as an individual, not as an organisation. Send the notice to your council, with a copy to the police and environmental health unless you apply online and the council does it for you. The police or environmental health can object within 3 working days only on the grounds of crime and disorder, public nuisance, public safety or harm to children. If they object to a late TEN, the notice is invalid and the event cannot go ahead. If you want the same activity on your premises regularly, vary your premises licence instead.

Members' clubs

A qualifying club can hold a club premises certificate instead of a premises licence. Police and licensing officers have more limited rights of entry to a club that holds one.

Apply to your council with a plan of the premises, the club rules and an operating schedule. Supplying alcohol or entertainment without the certificate, or breaking its conditions, can mean up to 6 months in jail and a fine.

Accommodation for staff and guests

A house in multiple occupation (HMO) licence is mandatory if 5 or more people from more than one household share a toilet, bathroom or kitchen, and at least one of them pays rent, or their employer pays it for them. That can catch staff accommodation and some hostels. Councils may also require licences for smaller HMOs in their area, so ask yours.

A licence lasts up to 5 years, the council sets the fee and each HMO needs its own. The manager must be a fit and proper person, and the council may attach conditions on facilities and safety. Renting out a licensable HMO without a licence carries an unlimited fine.

Registers and licences for tourist accommodation, such as holiday lets, depend on where the property is.

Shisha

Smoking shisha is smoking tobacco, so the smoke-free rules apply and there is no exemption for shisha. Premises that have a ceiling or roof and are wholly enclosed, apart from doors, windows and passageways, are enclosed. Premises with a ceiling or roof are substantially enclosed if the openings in the walls add up to less than half the wall area. You can serve shisha only in outdoor areas or structures that are not enclosed or substantially enclosed. Anyone who controls or manages smoke-free premises must make a person smoking there stop, and it is an offence not to unless they took reasonable steps.