Sources, method and what we leave out

Why licensing

Under the Licensing Act 2003, a venue that sells alcohol, provides regulated entertainment or serves hot food after 11pm needs a premises licence from its council. A new application, and a full variation, must be advertised and goes through a 28-day consultation, so it becomes public weeks before the venue trades.

Transfers matter too. When a licensed venue changes hands the new owner applies to transfer the licence, and a change of owner is often the start of a refit, a new till and new suppliers.

Where the data comes from

Council licensing registers, which list new applications, variations and transfers with the applicant, address, hours and dates.

Statutory notices published in local newspapers and gathered on the Public Notice Portal, which we use to cross-check new applications and variations.

Companies House, for each company applicant: number, incorporation date and registered office.

What we add

A signal tier (A, B or C), the things a venue is likely to need, a plain-English note and flags for chains, landlords and companies registered at the premises.

Tiers, tags and notes are our interpretation of public information. We check every Tier A record by hand before it goes out.

What we leave out

Manager (DPS) changes and minor variations, which rarely mean any spending.

Personal details. Where the applicant is an individual rather than a company, we show "individual applicant" and nothing that identifies them.

How often

We collect through the week and publish on Monday morning: a web list, a spreadsheet and a PDF, filtered to your councils.