SPRING 2017
SHISHA PIPES
premises may not be open to the public after
midnight” to protect public amenity. Breach of a
planning restriction could lead to enforcement action
by the Council, so it’s worth checking this out first.HEATERS AND CANOPIES
Make your outside space as confortable as possible,
but remember you can’t make it too cosy by
enclosing the space, as this will make it a “smoke
free” space under the Health Act 2006. It’s often at
this point that the planning officer pops up to say
that heaters, canopies etc need planning consent
(which they do), so you would be wise to apply for
approval in advance of making any changes.LICENSING
We will assume that you already have a Premises
Licence in place. Some shisha venues will sell alcohol
and others won’t, so alcohol sales may or may not
have to be authorised on the licence. If you don’t
have a licence you may need one, so take some
advice and don’t assume that planning and licensing
are the same thing. They are two entirely separate
regimes. A time restriction on your planning consent
may not match that on your Premises Licence and
vice versa. You may need to apply to extend your
planning and licensing hours.SMOKE FREE
As we mentioned earlier, it’s obviously a criminal
offence to allow people to smoke shisha indoors. It’s
also an offence to allow smoking within “substantially
enclosed” spaces (as a rough guide, this is a space
with a roof, where 50% or more of the walls are
enclosed). Don’t be tempted to allow smoking
indoors!TOBACCO DUTY
Another frequent criminal prosecution relates to use
of non-duty paid tobacco in shisha pipes. Generally
speaking any tobacco type mixture intended to be
smoked (whether tobacco or not) is subject to duty in
the UK and must be duty paid. It’s an offence to sell
duty unpaid tobacco to fuel shisha pipes, so don’t be
tempted to use “dodgy” tobacco, if HRMC finds out
they will visit!INSURANCE
Don’t forget that carrying around burning charcoal
is a fairly dangerous activity, so make sure you have
liability insurance in case your staff or customers get
burnt. You will also need public liability insurance
in relation to an external area, so that you would
be covered if for example, a customer falls over a
barrier and injures themselves. Councils will ask you
to provide evidence of insurance before issuing
highways consents. AR