Licensing and permits

Complaints about licensed premises

You can submit a complaint about a licenced premise (including club premises certificates) if it relates to incidents that fall under any of the four licensing objectives:

  • Prevention of crime and disorder: This may include drunkenness, anti-social behaviour, drug use, spiking, sexual harassment, inappropriate behaviour, racial harassment, actions of door staff, illegal working and theft.
  • Public safety: This may include the physical safety of people using the venue, fire safety and first aid provisions.
  • Prevention of public nuisance: This may include the venue operating beyond its authorised hours, loud music/people, light pollution, noxious smells and litter.
  • Protection of children from harm: This may include moral, psychological and physical harm from alcohol, strong language or sexual exploitation, underage access/drinking.

For independent information and advice on how to raise your concerns about an alcohol licensed premise, visit alcohollicensing.org.uk.

Complaints that are not related to the licensed premises or licensing objectives cannot be dealt with under this process. To report other concerns, contact the relevant service.

How will my complaint be handled?

The nature of your complaint will determine how we handle it.

We may contact the premises licence holder to discuss the complaint and carry out a general compliance inspection. We will not pass on your personal details.

When we have concluded our investigation, we will tell you the outcome.

However, if we think the complaint is best dealt with by a more appropriate service, we would hand the complaint over for investigation. This would include sharing your information with:

  • Merseyside Police
  • Merseyside Fire and Rescue
  • Environmental Health
  • Safeguarding Board
  • Public Protection Enforcement Team

If you do not want us to share details of your complaint with another service, we may not be able to fully investigate the complaint.

For incidents relating to crime and disorder, we strongly advise you to report them to Merseyside Police or call 101 so the police can investigate further. If it is not reported to them, the matter may not be investigated.

How to submit a complaint

Submit your complaint online using the link below. You will need to tell us:

  • Your personal details (name, address, contact)
  • Incident details (time, date, what happened and which licensing objectives have been breached)
  • Premises details (name and address of licensed premise)
  • Consent to share your details, if the complaint does not fall under our remit.

Make a complaint about a licensed premise

Read our privacy notice which tells you how we use your data.

What happens next?

We will review your complaint and decide if we will carry out a general compliance inspection, or pass the complaint on to a more appropriate service to lead the investigation.

We will contact you to advise who will be investigating the complaint.