Guidance: Home Office alcohol and late-night refreshment licensing statistics: user guide

Statistics in the Alcohol licensing, England and Wales publication are based on information from licensing authorities (LAs). Data is collected in line with the Licensing Act 2003 (‘the 2003 Act’).

1.2 What these statistics do not include

Data on the number of public houses is not included as these are not legally defined in the 2003 Act (the Act defines activities rather than premises types). Instead, information is collected on the number of premises licences and club premises certificates that authorise:

A premises with a premises licence or club premises certificate authorised to sell or supply alcohol, provide late-night refreshment or provide regulated entertainment, might not provide that service. For example, a premises authorised to sell alcohol might not sell alcohol.

Regulated entertainment licensing is not covered in these statistics as it is the responsibility of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

To minimise the administrative burden on LAs, the Home Office did not collect data for the years ending 31 March 2011 and 31 March 2015. A public consultation on alcohol and late-night refreshment licensing statistics was held in October 2018, and in response it was decided that data would be collected from licensing authorities (LAs) every other year using a reduced questionnaire. This reduced the burden on LAs whilst ensuring the continuity of key headline statistics. Data for the year ending 31 March 2020 was not collected due to COVID-19.

The Home Office response to the 2018 Alcohol and late-night refreshment licensing statistics consultation provides information on how data is collected in response to the user consultation in 2018.

Uses of the statistics on alcohol licensing are listed using the standard categorisation for Official Statistics.

1.3.1 Informing the general public’s choices