Sunday hours apply this New Year's Eve

Pubs and licensed premises will have to apply for special orders of exemption if they want to stay open beyond 10.30pm on New Year's Eve this year, which falls on a Sunday.

This is particularly bad news for nightclubs, as current legislation bans any public dancing on Sunday where an entrance fee has to be paid.

The Magistrates' Association had called upon the Government to extend the special provisions made for the millennium festivities, which allowed establishments to open for an extra 36 hours without having to apply for special licensing extensions.

But a spokeswoman for the association said the Government had made it clear there would not be enough time to make a similar deregulation order for the coming New Year.

The association had been optimistic, as the millennium festivities had passed without any major disorder. "It is embarrassing for us," said the spokeswoman, "people are applying and our members are waiting for guidance."

A Home Office spokesman said the Government was looking to deregulate opening hours for all New Year's Eves, but said the glut of legislation to be passed made it unlikely it could do this in time for 31 December this year. However, he was more hopeful that the Government could find the time to pass laws allowing nightclubs to open up to 12.30am on Sundays.

To encourage some consistency of approach in England and Wales this year, the Magistrates' Association is urging licensing justices to allow premises that apply for special orders of exemption to open until 12.30am.

Sid Brighton, executive director of the Justices' Clerks' Society secretariat, said there would be a similar problem on Christmas Eve, which also fell on a Sunday. However, he said no specific guidance had been issued for this date, as fewer premises wanted to stay open on this occasion.

by Angela Frewin