On 6 August 2010 , the Scottish Criminal Justice and Licensing Law received Royal Assent. This law includes an amendment which will require applicants for new full premises licences to demonstrate how accessible their premises are. The amendment follows a campaign by wheelchair user Mark Cooper for a comprehensive listing of pubs with accessible toilet facilities. Mr Cooper worked with Capability Scotland to raise awareness about his campaign nationally.

However, Susan Clark of Edinburgh City Council licensing board said that there were some flaws with the new legislation that would need to be addressed. She explained: ‘Only applicants for new full premises licences need give this assessment, not new provisional licences. If someone wanted to avoid applying, they could take just out a provisional licence.’ She also said that the law only applied to new premises, not to the nearly 2,000 premises which already have licenses in the city.

For the full story, visit the Guardian website
http://tinyurl.com/guardian-scot-licensing

To view the Act, visit the Scottish Parliament website
www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/24-CrimJustLc/index.htm