Edinburgh's Licensing Board is responsible for regulating the sale of alcohol to the public and certain gambling activities, by issuing alcohol licences and betting and gambling permits.
Extended hours – Festive period 2025/26
The Board’s extended hours policy for the festive period operates from 18 December 2025 to 2 January 2026 inclusive.
This means that premises with seasonal variations in their operating plans may trade for an additional two hours added to closing time from Thursday 18 December and with the last two hours added to closing time Friday 2 January.
Any other premises seeking to operate extended hours during that period would have to submit an Extended Hours application.
Statement of Licensing Policy 2023
The Board agreed the terms of its new Statement of Licensing Policy at its meeting on 27 November 2023. . The final version of the policy confirms changes to extended hours policy, occasional licensing, expectations on safe travel arrangements and a number of other adjustments.
Overprovision
On 23 June 2025 the Board agreed a supplementary statement of licensing policy with regard to its overprovision assessment. This followed a statutory consultation process and detailed consideration by the Board. Details of the following information considered by the Board on this topic are available:
- Download the report to the Licensing Board 26 May 2025
- Download the details of numbers and capacity of premises
- Download the consultation responses
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Licensing Board members
- Councillor Louise Young (Convener)
- Councillor Jason Rust (Vice Convener)
- Councillor Pauline Flannery
- Councillor Cammy Day
- Councillor James Dalgleish
- Councillor Chas Booth
- Councillor Norman Work
- Councillor Catherine Fullerton
- Councillor David Key
View recent Licensing Board meeting papers
Download details of what to expect at a Licensing Board meeting (PDF, 285KB)
Financial statements
Download the Edinburgh Licensing Board's annual financial statements (PDF, 297KB)
Alcohol and gambling policies
Download the gambling policy and related documents (PDFs)
Download the alcohol licensing policy (PDF, 8MB)
Equalities policy and outcomes
Download the equalities policy outcomes (PDF, 161KB)
Download the equalities policy 2018 (PDF, 282KB)
Freedom of information
Download freedom of Information publication scheme 2018 (PDF, 208 KB)
Annual functions reports
Download annual reports on the board's functions (PDF, 108KB)