Licensed trade staff risk five-year bans

THOUSANDS of staff involved in the licensed trade in Scotland could be barred from working in the industry for five years unless they take action in the next two months, a training firm has warned.

Bar staff will have to be careful. Picture: Contributed

Under the conditions of the Scottish personal licence, needed to sell or supply alcohol, refresher training must be undertaken every five years.

Those staff who were granted the licence in early 2009 have until August this year to complete their mandatory top-up training.

If they fail to do so their 
licence will be revoked and they will not be able to 
replace it for another five years. Figures released in April showed that only 3 per cent of the estimated 39,000 people who need to take the refresher course had done so.

Peter Fulton, operations 
director at ABV Training which runs Scottish licensing courses, said: “People have left it until the last minute to refresh their qualification but they might suddenly find in August that it is difficult to get on a course. Having their licence revoked is really serious consequence that some will not be aware of.”