Licensing hours in the UK: what time a pub can open and close, and how to stay open later

Licensing hours in the UK depend on where your pub is. In England and Wales there's no national closing time any more: since 24 November 2005 a pub can sell alcohol during whatever hours its premises licence says, and nothing else. Scotland lets the local licensing board set hours, with 24-hour opening only in exceptional cases and off-sales from 10am to 10pm. Northern Ireland still has fixed hours in law, 11.30am to 11pm on weekdays, with late opening on a limited number of nights.

"What time do pubs close?" gets asked thousands of times a month and the answers out there are mostly travel forums. If you run a pub the useful version of the question is "what does my licence actually let me do, and what does it cost to do more?" That's what this covers.

England and Wales: your licence is the law

The Licensing Act 2003 came fully into force on 24 November 2005 and ended the old 11pm closing time. Now your premises licence lists the times you can carry on each licensable activity, including selling alcohol, and the hours the premises is open to the public. Your local council can't set a blanket closing time for every pub. Its licensing policy can say what it generally expects, but it has to look at each application on its merits.

Where to look:

• Part A of your premises licence lists the licensable activities and the times for each, usually day by day.
• The non-standard timings section, if you've got one, often covers New Year's Eve, bank holidays, Christmas Eve or other one-off dates.
• The hours open to the public are usually listed separately from the alcohol hours, and are normally a bit later.
• Part B, the summary, has to be displayed at the pub, so your staff can see it too.

And one thing that catches people out: if your planning permission sets an earlier closing time than your licence, you have to observe the earlier one. Breaching planning permission is a separate offence under planning law.

Drinking-up time: what's legal

The old drinking-up time went with the old law. The 2003 Act controls when alcohol is sold, not when it's drunk, so there's no statutory drinking-up time in England and Wales. What there is, on most licences, is a gap between the end of alcohol sales and the time the premises has to be closed to the public, and that's the drinking-up time in practice. Customers can finish their drinks inside that window. Being open to the public after it is a breach of your licence conditions.

Northern Ireland is different. There, drinking-up time has been a legal one hour since 1 October 2021.

The four nations side by side

Licensing hours across the UK in 2026. Sources at the bottom.

	Who sets the hours	The rule
England	Your premises licence, granted by the council	No national closing time. Hours are whatever the licence says
Wales	Your premises licence, granted by the council	Same as England, same Act
Scotland	The local licensing board	24-hour licences only in exceptional circumstances. Off-sales only between 10am and 10pm
Northern Ireland	The law, with extensions by application	Pubs 11.30am to 11pm weekdays, 12.30pm to 11pm Sundays, 12.30pm to 10pm Christmas Day. Late opening to 1am or 2am on up to 104 nights a year. One hour drinking-up

Staying open later for one night: the TEN

For a one-off, a Temporary Event Notice is the tool. The rules that matter:

• It costs £21.
• Give it at least ten working days before the event. A late TEN can go in between five and nine working days before, but the police or environmental health can stop it with an objection and there's no hearing.
• Each premises can have up to 15 TENs a calendar year, covering no more than 21 days in total. An event that runs past midnight counts as two days.
• A personal licence holder can give 50 a year, 10 of them late. Anyone else gets five, two of them late.
• No more than 499 people on the premises at any one time.

Before you spend £21, read your non-standard timings. The Home Office guidance says applicants should normally build regular occasions like bank holidays into their licence from the start, and plenty of older licences do. The full Christmas list is in the Christmas TEN guide.

When the government changes the hours for everyone

For events of exceptional local, national or international significance, the Home Secretary can make a licensing hours order that extends hours for every licensed pub at once, without anyone applying. The most recent was the FIFA World Cup order, which came into force on 8 June 2026. It added two hours, to 1am, after England or Scotland knockout games that kicked off by 9pm, and three hours, to 2am, after games that kicked off by 10pm. It only applied to premises already licensed to sell alcohol until at least 11pm on the day, and it didn't extend entertainment hours. That's the pattern: these orders build on your existing licence, they don't replace it.

Staying open later for good: the variation

If you want later hours permanently, you need a full variation of your premises licence. The Home Office guidance is clear that two kinds of change can never go through as a cheaper minor variation:

• extending alcohol sales at any time between 11pm and 7am;
• increasing the total time on any day that alcohol can be sold.

Reducing hours, or moving them around between 7am and 11pm without adding any, will normally be treated as a minor variation (£89). A full variation costs the same as a new application for your rateable value band, from £100 in band A to £635 in band E, more in the top two bands if you're primarily a drinks-led pub. It has to be advertised with a blue notice and in the local paper, and residents and the responsible authorities can make representations. My premises licence cost guide has every band.

Two newer things to know about. Some councils use Early Morning Restriction Orders to stop alcohol sales between midnight and 6am across an area. And in London, from 3 November 2026, the Mayor can call in licensing decisions of strategic importance, such as later hours or big venues, after the borough has made its decision, and the Greater London Authority can now make representations on applications.

Is an extra hour worth it?

This is the sum I'd do before I applied for anything. An extra hour on a Friday with two staff costs about £28.48 in wages and holiday pay at the £12.71 National Living Wage (£12.71 plus 12.07% holiday pay, times two). At £2.45 gross profit on a £5.34 pint, that's about 12 pints to break even, before you count any extra electricity, door staff if your licence needs them, or the cost of the variation itself.

So the question isn't "would people stay?" It's "would 12 more pints get sold in that hour, every week?" If your last hour is already quiet, an extra one will be quieter. If you're turning people away at 11, it's probably worth the application. The quiet nights guide uses the same sum the other way round.

One thing I'd do this week

Get your licence out and write the actual sale times and closing times for each day on a card behind the bar, next to the till. Then check them against your Google listing and your website. It's easy for a listing to say "open till late" when the licence ends sales at 11 on a Sunday, or for a pub to shut at 11 every night when the licence allows midnight at weekends. The first is a risk, the second is money left on the table. Both take ten minutes to find.

My take

The 2003 Act gave pubs freedom over their hours and most of us never use it. The licence in the drawer is the most valuable bit of paper in the building, and I'd bet most of us couldn't say what it allows on a Tuesday without looking. Know your times, use the TENs you're allowed, and only pay for a variation when the extra hour already has customers waiting for it.

Common questions

What are the licensing hours in the UK?

In England and Wales there's no national closing time. Since 24 November 2005 each pub's hours are whatever its premises licence says. In Scotland the licensing board sets them, with 24-hour opening only in exceptional circumstances and off-sales limited to 10am to 10pm. Northern Ireland still has fixed permitted hours, 11.30am to 11pm on weekdays and 12.30pm to 11pm on Sundays, plus late opening on a limited number of nights.

What time do pubs have to close in England?

Whenever their premises licence says. Some licences end alcohol sales at 11pm, others at midnight, 1am or later, and many have different times on different days. The times are on Part A of the licence, and a summary has to be displayed at the pub.

Is there a drinking-up time in England?

Not in the law. The Licensing Act 2003 controls when alcohol can be sold, not when it's drunk. But your operating schedule sets the hours the premises is open to the public as well as the hours you sell, and those become conditions, so customers have to be gone by the closing time on your licence. Northern Ireland does have a statutory drinking-up time of one hour.

How can a pub stay open later for one night?

Give a Temporary Event Notice. It costs £21, must normally be given at least ten working days before the event (five for a late TEN), and each premises can have up to 15 TENs and 21 days a year. Check your licence's non-standard timings first, because some already cover New Year's Eve or bank holidays.

Can I extend my licensing hours permanently?

Yes, with a full variation of your premises licence. Extending alcohol sales between 11pm and 7am, or adding hours overall, can't be done as a minor variation. The fee is the same as a new application for your rateable value band, and the application has to be advertised so residents and the authorities can object.