The Home Office released revised Section 182 Guidance on 26 November 2025. The guidance is provided to support licensing authorities to carry out their functions under the Licensing Act 2003.
Normally the Home Office confirms what changes have been made, but for this revision, they merely confirm ‘The Guidance has been updated’.
The two major updates are as follows:
-A new Paragraph 1.18, that states: “When making licensing decisions, all licensing authorities should consider the need to promote growth and deliver economic benefits.” This ties in with the newly published National Licensing Policy Framework, whereby the Home Office are possibly looking to add “making growth of the hospitality sector a licensing objective.
-The consideration of ‘spiking’ is also an update, at Paragraph 10.10 stating: “Licensing authorities may also wish to consider placing additional conditions on licences to safeguard patrons against spiking, if deemed appropriate and proportionate for a specific venue where there is evidence to justify such action (a definition of spiking can be found in para 2.7).”
Please see the following link to the November 2025 revised Guidance: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69270f872a37784b16ecf54e/Revised_guidance_issued_under_section_182_of_the_Licensing_Act_2003__November_2025_.pdf
Should you wish to discuss the revised Guidance with Chris, please email Chris@woodswhur.co.uk or please do reach out to your normal Woods Whur contact.