The Licensing Act 2003 (c 17) is an act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The act establishes a single integrated scheme for licensing premises in England and Wales used to sell or supply of alcohol, provide regulated entertainment, or provide late night refreshment. It allows some or all of these licensable activities to be contained in a single licence—the premises licence—that replaced other schemes. Responsibility for issuing licences is given to local authorities, specifically London boroughs, metropolitan boroughs, unitary authorities, and district councils, who took over this power from the Justices of the Peace under a system of Licensing Committees. It came into effect midnight, 24 November 2005. Key measures Key measures contained in the act include: Flexible opening hours Flexible opening hours for licensed premises, with the potential for up to 24 hour opening, seven days a week, are available. As well as the flexibility, the granting of these new type of licences is to be subject to consideration of the impact on local residents, businesses, and the expert opinion of a range of authorities in relation to the licensing objectives. This flexibility is intended to minimise public disorder resulting from a set closing time whereby numerous intoxicated individuals may leave licensed premises simultaneously at 23:00. It is also an effort to decrease the culture of "binge-drinking". Single premises licences The single integrated premises licence, bringing together the six existing licensing regimes (for alcohol, public entertainment, cinemas, theatres, late night refreshment houses, and night cafés) to cut down on bureaucracy and simplify such provisions. Personal licences A new system of personal licences relating to the supply of alcohol that enables licence holders to move more freely between premises where a premises licence is in force than is currently the case. Licensing Committee Each local authority must set up a Licensing Committee with between ten and fifteen members; it is assumed that most member level decisions will be made by a sub-committee of three. The committee can and is expected to have a scheme of delegation for different types of decision; this means that many applications will be decided by officers. The full committee is expected to receive monitoring reports. The committee is not regarded as quasi-judicial (Hope and Glory Public House Ltd, R v City of Westminster Magistrates Court & Ors [2011] EWCA Civ 31), and should make its decisions in accordance with the principles of