Publications - General
Are You Compliant? Licensing and Regulation in the Hospitality and Food Services Industry
April 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the operation of many businesses within the hospitality and food services industry. Although your business practices may have changed unexpectedly for now, it is important to remember that local and state government licensing requirements continue to apply to the operation of all businesses. In addition to ensuring that your business complies with the terms of the relevant state government health orders relating to COVID-19 currently in place, it is a good time to review all other licensing requirements applying to your business to ensure that you continue to comply with these obligations.
What should I do to check my licensing requirements?
- Check what licence(s) your business currently has in place with the appropriate local council(s).
- Consider what rules and regulations the relevant council(s) may require you to follow to ensure the licence(s) that your business holds are not revoked. This may mean that you need to make some changes to your business operations to ensure compliance with those rules and regulations.
- Confirm whether you have the appropriate licence(s) in place for any food or liquor classification your business may fall under with the relevant state government regulator (such as the NSW Food Authority and NSW Liquor & Gaming NSW) and be ready to meet those licensing standards and/or notification requirements.
- Understand the circumstances where additional food or liquor licences, and other commercial licences, are required to be obtained by businesses. As part of your business development plan, it is a good idea to set out what things might mean you need to obtain additional licences and/or vary the current licences for your business (for example, where your business grows in turnover or staff, or expands its product or service offering) and to review this regularly as part of your business’ overall risk management strategy.
- If you want to obtain further licences for your business (for example, a liquor licence where you did not have one previously), it is important before applying for new licences to assess the scope and eligibility requirements of the licence(s) you are seeking and consider changes you may need to make to your business to ensure any future licence applications are successful.
Where can I find more information?
If you have any concerns in relation to the licences held by your business, regulatory compliance, or you would like to know more about your legal rights, please contact us.
