Temporary event notices

Temporary event notices (or TENs) allow you to provide licensable activities at premises within Dacorum on a one-off or infrequent basis. They can either be used at unlicensed premises, or at licensed premises to extend the normal licence, for a special occasion.

TENs are a light-touch type of licence, meaning that we will only intervene to block events if we have reason to believe that the planned event may be detrimental to one or more of the licensing objectives - for example, if previous events at the premises resulted in crime, disorder, a risk to public safety, public nuisance, or harm to children, or if there is specific intelligence or concerns about the plans for the current event.

To prevent the temporary event notice system from being abused, there are a number of strict criteria on how they can be used. All of the following requirements are set within the Licensing Act 2003, and if a proposed event does not satisfy all of them, it cannot be authorised.

Temporary event notice criteria

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  • Advance notice

    If you submit your application at least 10 full working days before the start of your event, it will be considered as a standard temporary event notice. This period excludes:

    • the day on which you made your application
    • the day(s) of your proposed event
    • any Saturdays, Sundays, bank holidays or other public holidays. Please note: any late notices received over a weekend or bank/public holiday period will need to be checked on the first working day after submission to ensure the form is completed as required by the legislation, and that a payment has been received to validate it. For that reason, we would strongly advise you to submit your notice as early as possible and with additional working days' notice where possible.

    You are permitted to give a small number of late temporary event notices each year, which can be submitted between five and nine full working days before the start of your event. Late temporary event notices (TENs) are subject to immediate veto if any objections are made against them, so we strongly encourage event organisers to give standard TENs wherever possible. The maximum number of late TENs which can be given in each calendar year is:

    • 10 late TENs per year - if you hold a valid personal licence
    • 2 late TENs per year - in all other circumstances

    We cannot accept any temporary event notice which is given to us less than five full working days before the start of the event.

  • Size of event

    Temporary event notices are only intended to be used for small, infrequent events. As such, they can only be used by the organisers for events with no more than 499 persons present at any time. This figure includes all customers, organisers, staff, contractors and performers who will be present on the event site.

    If you are planning an event which may have more than 499 people on site at any time, you will need to apply for a premises licence instead.

  • Duration of event

    A temporary event notice can last for a maximum of 168 consecutive hours (equivalent to seven days) from start to finish. If you are arranging a single event with a longer duration, you will instead need to apply for a premises licence.

    A series of events taking place at a single premises can be authorised either under a single TEN (if they take place on consecutive days), or multiple TENs (if spread over a longer period), subject to the other criteria being met.

  • Separation of events

    If you are organising multiple events at a single premises, you will need to ensure that there is a gap of at least 24 hours between the end of one temporary event notice and the start of another.

    If you are planning events on consecutive days, you can put these on to a single TEN, subject to the other criteria being met.

  • Frequency of events at premises

    Each 'premises' can have up to 15 temporary event notices in a calendar year, which when added together allow events on no more than 21 calendar days in that year (so that an event starting before midnight and ending after midnight will count as two days).

    The definition of premises includes any building, land, vessel or vehicle, or part thereof, providing that there is adequate separation and control of each separate part of the premises.

  • Quota of events by applicant

    In each calendar year, an individual applicant is permitted to give:

    • up to 50 temporary event notices, if they hold a valid personal licence
    • up to five temporary event notices, in all other circumstances

    This limit applies across the whole of England and Wales, so if you've already given temporary event notices in another council area, you will be able to give fewer TENs in Dacorum.

    The limit also applies jointly across any associated persons, so a married couple, family members, work colleagues or business partners will only be able to give 50 or five TENs between them.

  • Age of applicant

    Temporary event notices can only be given by individuals who are at least 18 years of age.

Making an application

You can apply for a temporary event notice online, or by printing the application form and returning it to us. The fee for each temporary event notice is £21, and payment must be made at the time of application.

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If you make a paper application, you must also send copies of your application to the police and environmental health, at the addresses given on the front of the application pack. If you apply online using the above link, we will do this for you.

Police and Environmental Health officers can make objections about your event within a period of three working days, beginning from when they receive your application. They may also contact you to see if you would be prepared to modify your TEN in a way that would resolve any concerns (for example, reducing the hours you are seeking). There is no legal power for any other party, including members of the public, to object to temporary event notices.

If an objection is made against your temporary event notice, we will let you know as soon as possible. What happens next will depend on how far in advance you applied:

  • if you gave a standard TEN: we will arrange for your temporary event notice to be considered by our Licensing Sub-Committee (a panel of three councillors) at a public hearing, and you will be invited to attend this. After hearing from all parties, the Sub-Committee will make a decision either to allow your event to take place, or to issue a counter-notice which will veto the event. If the event is allowed to take place and the application relates to licensed premises, the Sub-Committee may also decide to bring forward conditions from the premises licence and apply these to the temporary event notice.
  • if you gave a late TEN: we will automatically issue a counter-notice, which vetoes the event. Given the limited timescales, there is no right to a hearing in these cases.

When we receive a valid temporary event notice, we will send you an acknowledgement letter - by law, we have to send this before the end of the period for objections to be made. Unless you hear otherwise from us, once you have received the acknowledgement letter you may proceed with your event. During the event, you must have a copy of the TEN on display and available for inspection by either police officers or authorised council officers, who have a right of entry to the event site.

Tacit consent

Tacit consent will apply to all valid and correctly served temporary event notices, to which no objections are made. If you have not heard from us within five working days of submitting your application, you may proceed with your event.

Refusal of applications

There are a number of possible reasons why we might refuse a temporary event notice:

  • if you have not given enough notice of your event - TENs must be submitted at least five or 10 working days before the proposed event, not counting the day on which you applied nor the first day of the event. This limit is set by law, and we cannot depart from it.
  • if your event does not satisfy the criteria above (for example, if you have already used your full quota of TENs for the year, or if your proposed event would exceed the maximum period allowed), we will issue a counter-notice, which vetoes the event. There is no right of appeal against this decision.
  • if you gave a late TEN and the police or environmental health objected to it, we must automatically issue a counter-notice to veto the event. There is no right of appeal against this decision.
  • if you gave a standard TEN and the police or environmental health objected to it, we will hold a hearing to consider all parties' arguments, and to decide whether to permit the event to take place, or to uphold the objections and issue a counter-notice to veto the event. Following a hearing, either the applicant or the objecting body may appeal within 21 days of our decision to a magistrates' court, providing that the event is at least five working days away.

Please note: we do not issue refunds for applications that are out of time or invalid for any of the other reasons set out in the above list. It is important to ensure that all Temporary Event Notices are made as early as possible - a minimum of 10 full working days before the event date for a standard TEN submission, or five full working days for a late TEN submission. This does not include the date that we receive the notice, the date of the event, or any weekends or bank holidays. Please contact the Licensing Team for advice if you need to check any of the limits before applying.

Complaints

If you've attended an event and were unhappy about it, we recommend that in the first instance you contact the organiser or the venue where the event took place to discuss this with them. If this does not resolve your concerns, the Citizens Advice Bureau may be able to provide assistance (or the UK European Consumer Centre, if you are outside the UK).

If you wish to report unauthorised licensable activities at an event, or an event which you believe breached a temporary event notice or other licence, please contact us with the details, and we will investigate further.

Contact us

For more information on temporary event notices, please email licensing@dacorum.gov.uk or call 01442 228860.

Page Last Updated: Wednesday, 11 May 2022 at 02:54 PM