The Licensing Conference at Scots Law 2026

Murrayfield Stadium is the venue for the next event in our Scots Law Conference Series, exclusively available to delegates in person on the day.

Chaired by Scott Blair of Terra Firma Chambers, our new Licensing Conference will focus on those key developments which have an impact on you and the advice you provide to your clients. Including presentations from Stephen McGowan from TLT LLP, Andrew Hunter of Harper Macleod, Lynn Simpson & Cameron Greig from Morton Fraser MacRoberts, Raymond Lynch of North Ayrshire Council, Ross Faulds from Thorntons and a keynote session from Jim Wilson of the Scottish Government.

What's being covered?

Enforceability of licensing conditions

Stephen explores examples of good and bad licensing conditions under both the alcohol and civic regimes, and will discuss real life issues around vires and proper purpose of conditions, issues around duplication, and conflict with other statutory regimes.

Stephen McGowan, TLT LLP

Update from the Scottish Government

In this session delegates will hear about some of the most important projects currently in progress within the licensing team in Scottish Government.

Jim Wilson, Scottish Government

The ‘Fit and Proper Person’ test – past its best or the way forward?

The fit and proper person test has had a key role across licensing schemes for some time, but with other jurisdictions favouring a more competence based test what does the future hold? Andrew will explore the test as applied currently and consider what may be coming down the line.

Andrew Hunter, Harper Macleod

Consistency and reasonableness in licensing decisions

How does a licensing decision maker walk a principled line between being consistent in the application of policy and making exceptions to it? How can it reconcile previous decisions which it does not wish to follow in dealing with a current application where consistency is put in issue? In this session Scott will provide an overview of caselaw on consistency and will examine how it has been approached in civic, liquor and sex shop licensing.

Scott Blair, Terra Firma Chambers

Civic licensing update

In addition to Raymond’s update on civic licensing, he will also look at the use of AI within a licensing context.

Raymond Lynch, North Ayrshire Council

Navigating planning enforcement and short-term let licensing

This session will focus on the increasingly complex relationship between planning law, enforcement action, and short-term let licensing regimes.  We will explore how planning status, enforcement action, and licensing decisions influence one another in practice, and consider the challenges this creates for applicants, operators, and local authorities.

Lynn Simpson & Cameron Greig, Morton Fraser MacRoberts

Licensing Insights: observations from the front line

In this very practical session Ross will compare and contrast the differences in approach across a number of local authorities, with suggestions on how to be alert to those differences and adapt accordingly.

Ross Faulds, Thorntons