FIFE Council will take steps today (Monday) to start revoking the licences of hundreds of pubs and clubs which have failed to complete mandatory refresher training.

All personal licence-holders who received their licence on 1st September 2009 had to undergo the training by 31st August, and inform the licensing board by 30th November – or have their licence revoked for five years.

In July, we broke the story that hundreds of West Fife pubs and clubs could be closed at Christmas and New Year for failing to complete the training.

And now Fife Licensing Board is set to grant delegated powers to revoke the personal licences of businesses which have not produced evidence of complying with the requirements.

A report which will go before the board on Monday states that of the 1888 personal licences issued with effect from 1st September 2009, only half – or 943 – have produced their training certificates and 49 have surrendered their licences.

To operate legally and comply with national regulations, licensed premises must have a premises manager who holds a personal licence. A personal licence-holder must also be on site if the premises are open after 1am.

The report says, “As matters stand, the decision to revoke any personal licences where evidence of training has not been submitted within the statutory timescale will require to be taken by the board, even though the board does not have any discretion in the matter.” However, it is possible that there are licence-holders who have undergone the training but just not yet submitted the paperwork to the board.

The report concludes, “The board will be required by law to revoke a number of personal licences from 1st December 2014.

“As personal licence holders still have a number of weeks in which to submit evidence of training, the number to be revoked is as yet unknown.”