Section 8 of the Licensing Act 2003 requires licensing authorities to keep a register containing a record of premises licences, club premises certificates and personal licences issued by it and temporary event notices received by it, as well as other matters.

This section of the Act also provides that the Secretary of State may arrange for these duties to be discharged by means of one or more central registers to enable the exchange of the registered information. DCMS is working with licensing authorities and other key stakeholders to examine ways in which such a system might best be developed.

In the meantime, the Act has been established in a manner that allows a simple system, based on effective communication between licensing authorities, to fulfil a similiar function.