Under new licensing laws do u have to give free tap water in nightclubs?!
Under new licensing laws do u have to give free tap water in nightclubs?
Answers:
who the hell cares
I know they 'have' to serve it even if the bar's closed.
its illegall to 'sell' tap water!
even if it's illegal to sell tap water, depending on where you get it, there will be a charge because they are charging you for the CUP. for instance a restaurant doesnt charge (it's in a glass). fastfood places charge $.25 (it's in a to go cup).
It sounds like just good practice to give it away. If you have people drinking booze who want something in between or non-drinkers who are thirsty, you want those people just as happy as people only drinking things you charge for. It's a cup and water out of the sink. There's no need to be greedy about it.
And if you are going to a nightclub that charges for something out of the sink, either consider refilling in the bathroom (it's the same stuff they are giving you at a charge and I promise euqally unsanitary) or try another club.
Like so many things it all depends.
You appear to know that the legislation now is the Licensing Act 2003. The old legislation was the Licensing Act 1964 and various things including esp. relevant to your question, entertainment licences issued by local councils.
The new 'premises licences' will have conditions on them, sometimes the old conditions that water had to be freely available will have been carried over into the new licence. This goes back to the height of the rave scene when some club owners shut of the water supply in toilet sinks to force youngsters to buy expensive bottled water. W/out going into detail lack of water to rave goers was dangerous and rather surprisingly most rave goers didn't want alcohol, mostly soft drinks and water.
The only way to know the answer is to look at the conditions on the premises licence as now all premises licences are individually written up for each specific venue. There are no longer separate entertainment licences.
Ask at you local councils licensing dept to see the public records.
I'd be interested to know if you ask as a clubber or part of the management. Regardless of the historical rave connection reasons if you are an operator I think you could reasonably be expected to have water in sinks and wash basins for reasons of hygiene and if you don't watch out for a visit from the health & safety, food safety and similar depts.