Pub & Bar: Hosting a safe Christmas party

The festive period is coming – and it is never too early to plan ahead to ensure that you have a successful Christmas and New Year.

Welcoming new people to your premises and providing them with a great time can benefit you for more than just Christmas.

However, larger groups, especially work parties, come with additional risks that need addressing ahead of time. For this reason, we have provided some advice and guidance to assist you in having a safe and successful season for both your customers, and your staff.

• Temporary Events Notices (TENs)

 You may wish to extend your trading hours over Christmas and New Year. Check your premises licence to see if you are permitted to stay open later during this time. If not, make an application for a TEN as soon as possible so that you can plan your parties with the confidence of knowing you have secured the additional hours. A short notice TEN requires no less than 5 working days’ notice. Standard TENs require no less than 10 working days’ notice.

• Staffing

 You may be taking on temporary staff to assist with the additional demands over Christmas and New Year - make sure that your staff are all fully trained and aware of your policies particularly in relation to sales of alcohol to those under 18 and to customers who are already drunk. You should keep a record of all training that has been undertaken on site in case the Council or Police wish to confirm this is all in place.

• Welfare and Vulnerability (WAVE) Training

Where necessary make sure that staff have undertaken the appropriate Welfare and Vulnerability Training. This will help staff identify vulnerable customers and the appropriate interventions that should be made.

• Ask Angela

This is a nationally recognised scheme that enables anyone to subtly ask members of staff for help if that another customer is behaving inappropriately towards them.

It is important that you take any such request from a customer seriously to ensure that they feel safe. Helping a victim might be through reuniting them with a friend, seeing them to a taxi, or by calling venue security and/or the police. If in doubt ask your manager.

WAVE and Ask Angela training can both be easily accessed online and will take a short time to complete and is something that managers and staff should be encouraged to engage in, particularly at this busy time of year and when welcoming in customers who are not pub regulars.

• Drinks Spiking

Reports of drinks spiking are on the increase. On some occasions victims will be aware to some extent that they have been ‘spiked’ but will not understand what has caused it.  

Likewise, young people and those who may not be regular visitors to the pub and who are not used to drinking alcohol, can believe that they have been ‘spiked’ whereas in fact they have drunk too much too quickly. These people are still vulnerable and should be looked after in the same way you would a spiking victim.

It is important that you take all incidents seriously as you have a duty to protect vulnerable customers on your premises. Recognising and preparing/ adopting simple processes and procedures will help you all in having a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Q&A

I have made an application to extend the operating hours at my pub – how can my customers/local community support the application?

“The local community can send in positive representations (reps) supporting the application to the licensing authority and must be received by the council before the end of the consultation period – these details will be on the blue notice advertising the application on your premises. Whilst the rep can say positive things about your premises, for it to be deemed a valid rep it must reference at least one of the licensing objectives and say that the granting of the application would not undermine the licensing objective(s).”

“I want to employ additional, seasonal staff during the busy festive period – are there any rules I should be aware of?”

“Hiring a seasonal worker for the festive period follows many of the usual recruiting principles, so it is important that they are not overlooked due to the temporary nature of the role. Getting the contract right is crucial and typically a fixed term contract will be appropriate to cover a defined period of employment. Other recruitment procedures should still be fulfilled and care should also be taken to ensure holiday is calculated and paid correctly, particularly considering variable hours that may occur over the festive period.

“Seasonal workers should receive appropriate training, for example to ensure the employer is complying with the new duty to prevent sexual harassment (coming into force on 26 October 2024), along with training on topics such as discrimination and health and safety. This is particularly important in the context of Christmas parties, which is always a useful time to remind employees of expected conduct. 

“As of 1 October 2023, employers are also subject to new rules under the Allocation of Tips Act 2023 which employers in tipping industries must apply to seasonal workers.”

This article was first published in Pub & Bar.

This publication is intended for general guidance and represents our understanding of the relevant law and practice as at November 2024. Specific advice should be sought for specific cases. For more information see our terms & conditions.