The Licensing Partnership Manager introduced the report and explained that fees had been set annually since 2007. Proposed fees were based on cost-recovery plus inflation. Officers had used the Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services (LACORS) toolkit to calculate the costs for the Licensing Team over the year while assessing the risk of any additional costs. Inflation was set at 3% in line with the Council’s budget. She was satisfied that fees should be set at cost-recovery level only because these would be more defensible if challenged.

In response to a question she advised that the statutory maximum fees had not been changed since they were introduced. However, Sevenoaks District had only 8 betting premises and the fees for these were not at the statutory maximum. The Council would have difficulty successfully arguing for higher limits.

The fees for both the Gambling Act and Hackney Carriage and Private Hire were based on cost-recovery. This did not apply to Licensing Act 2003 fees and so the Licensing Partnership was still endeavouring to make efficiencies. The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 had been passed and would allow Council to set their own fees under the Licensing Act 2003, but the Council needed to await secondary legislation.

It was unanimously:

Resolved:       That the Gambling Act 2005 fees for 2012/13, as set out in bold in Appendix B of the report, be adopted.