Scotland’s Alcohol Laws: The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 Explained

What are Scotland’s alcohol laws?

Alcohol licensing in Scotland is governed by the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005. It is a separate, and in several respects stricter, system from the one in England and Wales. Licensing Boards, made up of local councillors, grant and review licences, and Licensing Standards Officers (LSOs) monitor premises and enforce the rules on the ground.

Two features set Scotland apart. First, the system is built around five licensing objectives rather than four, and one of those five is specifically about public health. Second, Scotland makes staff training mandatory — something England and Wales only recommends.

The five licensing objectives

Every licensing decision in Scotland must promote five licensing objectives:

1. Preventing crime and disorder
2. Securing public safety
3. Preventing public nuisance
4. Protecting and improving public health
5. Protecting children and young persons from harm

The fourth, protecting and improving public health, is the one that doesn’t exist in the England and Wales system, and it tells you a lot about how Scotland approaches alcohol. It’s why overprovision policies, minimum unit pricing and tighter marketing rules have all taken hold north of the border. If you operate in Scotland, decisions about your licence can turn on public-health grounds in a way they simply don’t elsewhere in the UK.

Licensing hours: when can you buy alcohol in Scotland?

For off-sales (shops, supermarkets and off-licences), alcohol can only be sold between 10:00 and 22:00. These are the maximum off-sales hours set in law across Scotland, so no shop can sell alcohol before 10am or after 10pm anywhere in the country — though an individual shop’s licence may permit a shorter window.

For on-sales (pubs, bars and restaurants), the permitted hours are set by each venue’s premises licence and operating plan, within limits the Licensing Board approves. There’s no single national closing time; it depends on what each premises is licensed for.

Age rules and under-18s

It is an offence to sell alcohol to anyone under 18 in Scotland, and the penalties for both the individual and the premises are serious. The accepted way to stay on the right side of the law is a firm age-verification policy: if a customer looks young, staff ask for ID and accept only recognised forms such as a passport, photocard driving licence or a PASS-hologram card.

Under-18s aren’t necessarily barred from licensed premises (a family in a restaurant, for example), but they cannot buy or be served alcohol, and individual premises licences can carry their own conditions about when and where under-18s are allowed.

Mandatory staff training: the 2-hour requirement

This is the part every Scottish venue owner needs to get right. Under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, everyone who sells or serves alcohol must be trained before they do so. That includes full-time, part-time and casual staff, paid or unpaid. It also applies wherever alcohol is sold or served, not just in pubs and bars: hotels and restaurants, golf and members’ clubs, off-licences, corner shops and licensed grocers, distillery and gift shops, and stalls at events and tastings are all caught by the same duty.

The duty to train staff comes from paragraph 6 of schedule 3 to the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005. The detail of what that training must contain is set out in the Licensing (Training of Staff) (Scotland) Regulations 2007. In practice it means:

• The training must run for a minimum of two hours.
• It must cover 16 prescribed subjects (listed below).
• A Record of Training must be kept on the premises where the person works.
• There is no requirement for a formal exam.
• It can be delivered by a Personal Licence Holder or a qualified trainer.

The key point is the timing: staff must complete the training before they start serving alcohol, not within their first few weeks. For a busy venue taking on seasonal or casual staff, that makes fast, online training particularly useful — a new starter can be trained and compliant the same day. If you’re weighing it up, our guide to whether bar staff need training to serve alcohol in the UK covers the employer’s view, and what an RSA is and who needs one explains the term in plain English.

By law, every member of your staff must complete this training before they serve alcohol in Scotland. The ServeWise Online course covers all 16 mandatory subjects in about two hours. Start the mandatory Scotland course — £35 per person, fully online, Record of Training included.

The 16 mandatory training topics

The Licensing (Training of Staff) (Scotland) Regulations 2007 set out exactly what staff training has to cover. The 16 subjects are:

1. The legal basis of the requirement to train staff
2. The licensing objectives
3. The definition of “alcohol” in the Act
4. What counts as an unlicensed sale
5. The role of Licensing Standards Officers, including their powers of entry
6. Operating plans and their place in the licensing system
7. The types of premises licence conditions
8. The special provisions that apply to clubs
9. Licensed hours
10. Offences under the Act, particularly those involving under-18s
11. Proof of age, and the rules on selling alcohol to children and young people
12. Test purchasing of alcohol
13. Best practice in standards of service and refusing service
14. Units of alcohol, and how units relate to the strength of different drinks
15. The sensible drinking limits recommended for men and women
16. Good practice in managing conflict situations

A good course doesn’t just tick these off — it turns them into things staff can actually use behind the bar: how to challenge for ID without it becoming an argument, how to refuse service calmly, how to spot when someone has had enough.

Personal licence holders versus staff

It’s easy to muddle two different things here, so it’s worth separating them.

A Personal Licence Holder is an individual qualified to authorise the sale of alcohol — typically a manager or the premises manager (Scotland’s term for the role England and Wales calls a Designated Premises Supervisor). Becoming one involves a separate, higher-level qualification — in Scotland, the Scottish Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (SCPLH). That is not what general staff training is, and it isn’t what ServeWise Online provides; it’s taken through an approved provider.

Your staff — the people pouring drinks and working the tills — need the mandatory two-hour responsible-service training. That’s the course ServeWise Online is built for.

In short: your premises manager needs a personal licence; your staff need their RSA training. Both are legal requirements in Scotland, but they’re different courses for different roles, and we break the distinction down in DPS vs staff training.

The role of the Licensing Standards Officer

Every licensing area in Scotland has Licensing Standards Officers. Their job is to provide guidance, mediate disputes, and check that premises are complying with their licence and with the Act. They have powers of entry, which means they can visit your premises to inspect how things are run.

One of the things an LSO can ask to see is your Record of Training — the proof that your staff have completed the mandatory training. If you can’t produce it, you have a compliance problem, regardless of whether your staff are actually trained. Keeping the records in order is as important as doing the training itself.

Record of Training: what LSOs check

A Record of Training has to be kept on the premises where each member of staff works. It shows who has been trained and when, and it’s the document an LSO will look for.

When someone completes the ServeWise Online Scotland course, they receive a PDF Record of Training they can give to their employer to keep on file. It doesn’t expire — once someone has completed the training, the record stands, although refresher training is sensible as the law evolves. Learners also get a Premises Practices document they can tailor to your venue, plus six months of access to revisit the material.

How ServeWise Online fits in

ServeWise Online has trained Scottish licensed-premises staff since 2008. Over 45,000 courses have been sold and more than 35,000 people have completed the training. The business began in partnership with Alcohol Focus Scotland, the national charity working to reduce alcohol harm — which is part of why our Scotland course maps so closely to what the law actually requires.

The course is fully online and self-paced, takes around two hours (the legal minimum), and costs £35 per person. It covers all 16 mandatory subjects, with no exam to fail — understanding is checked as learners progress. For people who want a formally examined qualification afterwards, there’s a City & Guilds upgrade pathway available.

Frequently asked questions

What time can you buy alcohol in Scotland?
Off-sales from shops and supermarkets are only permitted between 10:00 and 22:00 anywhere in Scotland. On-sales in pubs, bars and restaurants follow the hours set by each venue’s premises licence, so there’s no single national closing time.

Is staff alcohol training mandatory in Scotland?
Yes. Under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, everyone who sells or serves alcohol must complete training before they start — a minimum two-hour course covering 16 prescribed subjects, with a Record of Training kept on the premises.

How long does the mandatory training take?
At least two hours — that’s the legal minimum. The ServeWise Online course is built to meet it and is self-paced, so learners can take a little longer if they want to.

Do part-time and casual staff need the training too?
Yes. The requirement applies to all staff who sell or serve alcohol, including full-time, part-time and casual workers, paid or unpaid, and it has to be completed before they serve.

Is there an exam?
No. The law doesn’t require a formal exam. The ServeWise Online course confirms understanding through progressive questions as learners work through it, so they can’t skip ahead without taking the content in.

How long is the Record of Training valid?
It doesn’t expire. Once someone has completed the training, the record stands as proof. Refresher training is recommended as legislation changes, and a separate record is needed for each premises a person works at.

In England or Wales? The rules are different there — staff training is recommended rather than mandatory. See our Licensing Act 2003 guide.

Need to train your staff? Start the mandatory Scotland RSA course — £35 per person, around two hours, fully online, Record of Training included.