One of the most frequent enquiries I receive has to do with the completion of an Incident Register Form. It appears that more often than not, staff at licensed venues are being advised by Police that they need to complete the Incident Register, even when no incident has occurred.

You will find comfort in knowing that this is not the case.

Firstly, section 116A of the Liquor Control Act requires that a register of incidents is to be maintained on the licensed premises and in an acceptable form approved by the Director of Liquor Licensing.

Secondly, the Liquor Control Regulations at18EB ‘prescribe’ the incidents to be recorded in the Incident Register.

The following incidents that take place at licensed premises are deemed to be prescribed under the regulations;

• a person is refused entry to the premises because the person is;
  • drunk; or
  • behaving in an offensive manner, including violent, quarrelsome, disorderly or indecent behaviour

• a person who has been refused entry to the premises because;
  • the person repeatedly attempts to gain entry to the premises; or
  • behaves in an offensive manner, including violent, quarrelsome, disorderly or indecent behaviour;

• a person is required to leave or is removed from the premises;

• a juvenile or suspected juvenile fails to produce evidence of age when required to do so;

• a document produced by a juvenile or suspected juvenile as evidence of age is suspected to be forged, false or counterfeit;

• a person engages in indecent behaviour;

• a person is drunk;

• a person (including a person employed or engaged in the business conducted under the licence) is injured;

• a local resident or other person complains to the licensee, a manager or an employee about noise or any other matter related to the business conducted under the licence.

The legislation requires the completion of an Incident Register for all “prescribed” incidents.

Nowhere does it say you must complete an Incident Register where there has been no incident!! Therefore, you are not breaching the law if you choose not to complete an Incident Register form on a day there was no prescribed incident.

On the flipside, if you did complete an Incident Register stating that there was no incident, and it is then proven that there was an incident, you may be held liable.

The approved Incident Register form that must be used, can be found here or in your venue’s copy of the AHA Liquor Licensing Guide Folder.

Cheers,
Wanda Daniels
Regulatory & Policy Advisor