Patrol sheet for licensed premises

There may be a condition on the licence which requires the monitoring of noise at the nearest noise sensitive premises when live and recorded musical  entertainment takes place.

Alternatively venues such as pubs, restaurant, nightclubs, hotels and casinos may choose to have staff carry out patrols, particularly in larger premises, in the interests of safeguarding and prevention of criminal activity. This is particularly recommended for premises that have had incidents in the past. Conducting patrols as a routine part of the trading activity can not only help to prevent further incidents but demonstrate to the authorities that all possible preventative steps are being taken.

Patrols can be used to keep an eye out for:

• Illegal drug usage.
• Smoking in non-smoking areas.
• Alcoholic drinks being taken away from an on-licence premises.
• Drunken behaviour that is becoming aggressive or causing damage.
• Mistreatment of children, including children being taken into hotel rooms where they were not checked in.
• Underage, or suspected underage, visitors drinking alcohol or attending age-restricted areas.
• Noise nuisance from loud music

You can patrol any public internal or external areas that present a risk, particularly those where staff are not always present. Of course, private areas such as hotel rooms would not be reasonable to patrol. You can also patrol shared toilet areas (often conducted during closing down procedures), but this process should be developed with considerations for privacy. Although illegal drug usage may take place within toilet cubicles, no licensing authority would expect you to check inside occupied cubicles.

To make sure patrols are not missed and to have records to show the authorities, you may wish to keep a daily or weekly log of all patrols that your staff conduct.

Your patrol sheet should include:

• The area(s) checked
• The date and time
• The name of the staff member completing the check
• The findings or action taken (for most checks, the finding will be ‘Nothing to report’)

We have produced a useful template patrol sheet with all these columns laid out which is available to download and print and ready for you to use in your premises. You can download this template for free by providing your details in the form above.