The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 requires every Council to establish a Local Licensing Forum for their area.

The sections of the Act relating to Local Licensing Forums are 10 - 12 and a link to the act can be found below
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/legislation/scotland/acts2005/20050016.htm

Schedule 2 to the Act provides detail on the mandatory requirement with regard to membership of Local Licensing Forums.
This is:

Licensing Boards and local authorities may wish to adopt their own individual working practices and innovative ways for the Forums to carry out their work provided they are consistent with the provisions of the Act.

The contents of these pages are just advice and can be adapted to suit local situations.

Timescale
The Forums have to be up and running, to comment on the draft policy statements and to attend training, by late June early July 2007.

The Licensing Forums are independent from the Licensing Board and it is the newly elected councillors, post election, that will select the Forum Members. This is selection process will take into account mandatory requirements of the Act and local representation.

It may be in your area that the Forum is formed before the appointment of a Licensing Standards Officer. It may also be good practice that a member of the licensing team from the council sit in on meetings as they have detailed knowledge of the Act. They will be not be a forum member but will provide legal support alongside the other administrative support that the council will be providing.

Effective Forums
An effective Licensing Forum should be widely recognised as being both independent and expert. To ensure independence, the Forum must develop an identity that is clearly separate from the Licensing Board or any other interest groups.

To ensure representation at each meeting Forum members will be permitted to send 'substitutes'. The council is encouraged to have a code of practice by which all Forum Members abide an example can be found by clicking here.

Agendas and minutes must be publicised such as on a website. Participation should be encouraged by such methods as 'round robins' to get each members views on topics. If a particular specialised topic is being discussed the Forum may invite outside speakers or members of the Board to attend their meeting.

Board Members & Forums
There is still a grey area with regard to the position of a Board Member sitting on a forum. Recommendations from both Nicholson and Daniel’s reports stressed that forums should be independent from the Board however the current guidance states that a member should sit on the forum. The guidance is in the process of being revised and one option is that forums can invite Board Members to sit in to aid communication but they will not be voting members of the forum itself. This option maintains the independence and allows members who are licence holders to vote on matters without being concerned about the impact on their own licence. This position will not be clarified until ministers look at it later this year along with other guidance revisions.