DPS duties checklist: what a designated premises supervisor does, day to day

If you're the designated premises supervisor, your name is on the premises licence and the council and police will come to you first. That's true whether you run the pub yourself or manage it for someone else. The role isn't complicated, but it's easy to drift: training records slip, a condition gets forgotten, or a manager leaves and nobody tells the council.

This page covers the DPS role in England and Wales under the Licensing Act 2003, with a daily, weekly and monthly checklist you can copy. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own licensing systems. For the wider manager role (rota, stock, food safety, the numbers), see pub manager duties.

What is a designated premises supervisor?

GOV.UK describes the DPS as the person who has day-to-day responsibility for the running of the business. The key points:

• The DPS must hold a personal licence and be nominated by the premises licence holder, using a consent form.
• Each premises can have only one DPS, but one person can be the DPS for several businesses.
• The DPS is the main point of contact for the council and the police, and should understand the social issues that come with selling alcohol.
• The DPS doesn't have to be on site at all times, but must be contactable and involved enough to represent the business.
• Members' clubs, and some community premises that have applied for it, don't need a DPS.

The Act backs this up with a mandatory condition on every licence that allows alcohol sales: no alcohol may be supplied when there is no DPS, or when the DPS doesn't hold a personal licence or has it suspended. If your DPS leaves and nobody is named in their place, you can't legally sell alcohol.

DPS, licence holder and personal licence holder

The legal duties that land on the DPS

Most licensing duties are shared between the licence holder, the DPS and the person serving. These are the ones that fall on the DPS, or that the DPS is usually expected to manage:

• Every sale authorised. Every supply of alcohol must be made or authorised by a personal licence holder. Staff without a personal licence need authorising.
• Age verification. The licence holder must adopt an age verification policy, and the DPS must make sure alcohol is supplied in line with it. The policy must require anyone who looks under 18 (or an older age you set, such as 25) to show photo ID with a date of birth and a hologram or ultraviolet feature. Since 15 September 2026 the policy may also allow digital ID through a registered digital verification service.
• No sales to drunk customers. Knowingly selling or allowing a sale of alcohol to someone who is drunk is an offence for the person serving, the licence holder and the DPS.
• The other mandatory conditions: no irresponsible promotions, free drinking water, smaller measures available, and no sales below the cost of duty plus VAT.
• Your own licence conditions. Whatever is in the annex to your premises licence: CCTV, door staff, last entry, a refusals log, training, noise.
• The licence and summary. The licence holder must keep the licence (or a certified copy) and the mandatory conditions at the premises, held by them or by a member of staff nominated in writing, and display the licence summary prominently. In practice the DPS usually makes sure this happens.

Your duties as a personal licence holder

Because the DPS holds a personal licence, these apply too:

• Produce your personal licence if a police officer or licensing officer asks while you're on the premises to make or authorise sales.
• Tell the licensing authority of a change of name or address as soon as reasonably practicable.
• Tell the court you hold a personal licence if you're charged with a relevant offence, by your first court appearance.
• Tell the licensing authority about relevant convictions as soon as reasonably practicable.

A personal licence in England and Wales now has effect indefinitely, so there's no renewal date, but it stops having effect if the holder is no longer entitled to work in the UK.

Daily DPS checklist

On the days you're in, or for the duty manager when you're not:

• Licence summary displayed where customers can see it, and the licence or certified copy on site
• Challenge 25 (or your policy's) signs up at every bar
• Every staff member serving alcohol is authorised by a personal licence holder
• Free drinking water and smaller measures available, and no irresponsible promotions running
• Any licence conditions that apply daily: CCTV recording, door staff booked, last entry time, outside drinking area cleared on time
• Refusals and incidents written down during the shift
• A named person in charge for the close, with your phone number

Weekly DPS checklist

• Review and sign the refusals log (many licence conditions require this, often weekly). Use our free refusals log template if you don't have one.
• Review the incident log: anything that needs reporting, a follow-up with the police, or a change in how you run the door
• Spot-check that CCTV is recording and footage is kept for the period your licence sets
• Check the rota: a responsible person in charge for every session, enough experienced staff on for busy nights
• Brief the team on anything coming up: a big match, a promotion, a local event, a problem customer

Monthly and quarterly DPS checklist

• Read through your licence conditions against what actually happens. Conditions are easy to forget after the first year.
• Training records up to date: new starters trained on the age verification policy, refusing drunk customers and proxy sales, and refreshers on the schedule your licence sets
• Written authorisations for every member of staff who sells alcohol, signed and dated
• Check the licence still lists the right DPS, opening hours and layout plan, and that any changes have been applied for
• Confirm your personal licence details (name, address) are current with the licensing authority
• Review any complaints from neighbours, the council or the police, and what you've done about them

Licence conditions to know

Every licence is different, so the only way to know your conditions is to read the annex to your own premises licence. Many managers have never seen theirs. Common conditions councils attach include:

One council's standard conditions, for example, include a Challenge 25 policy with signs at every bar, an incident and refusals book kept for at least 12 months, and staff training with refreshers every six months, all recorded and available to police and licensing officers. Another council's licence review required the DPS to check the refusals record at least once a week. Yours may say something different, and yours is the one that counts.

Staff authorisations and training records

GOV.UK is clear that staff don't need their own personal licence to serve, but anyone without one must be authorised to sell alcohol by a personal licence holder. The law doesn't say how, so put it in writing. A good authorisation records:

• the staff member's name and the date
• the personal licence holder giving the authorisation
• what they were trained on: your age verification policy, acceptable ID, refusing drunk customers, proxy purchases, your licence conditions
• both signatures

Keep these with your training records, where a licensing officer can see them quickly. Our guide to hospitality staff training records covers what else to keep, and if you employ under-18s, see young workers in pubs and bars.

When the DPS is off site

You don't need to be there for every shift, but sales must still be made or authorised by a personal licence holder, and you must be contactable. To make your days off safe:

• Name a duty manager for every session and make it visible to the team, on the rota or in a day note.
• Have more than one personal licence holder on the team if you can, so there's always someone senior.
• Put authorisations in writing so they're in place when you're not.
• Leave clear instructions on licence conditions that apply at set times: door staff, last entry, closing the garden.
• Answer your phone. Being contactable is part of the role.

Changing the DPS

When a DPS leaves, plan the handover before the last day, because without a DPS no alcohol can be sold.

• The licence holder names the new DPS by applying to vary the premises licence, online or on the council's form, with the new DPS's consent.
• The outgoing DPS can remove themselves by giving written notice to the licensing authority. If they don't hold the premises licence, they must send the licence holder a copy within 48 hours. They stop being the DPS when the council receives the notice, or on a later date stated in it.
• Don't assume leaving the job is enough. Until the council has been told, the outgoing DPS is still named on the licence.

Where ShiftComplete helps

ShiftComplete is an operations and rota app for UK pubs, restaurants, cafés, bars and hotels. It won't hold your licence, but it keeps the routine around it visible:

• Daily and weekly checklists that change by weekday, such as "licence summary displayed", "Challenge 25 signs up" or "DPS: sign refusals log". Every tick is named and timestamped, with optional or required photo evidence, and a 2am close still counts as "today".
• The rota, with day notes, so the team always knows who is in charge when you're not.
• Incidents logged with a photo, severity, status and resolution notes, visible on the dashboard.
• Team announcements for briefings before a busy weekend, so they don't get lost in the group chat.
• Risk assessments created, kept and printed in the app, and a weekly report showing task completion and open incidents.
• Multi-site dashboards and area-manager roles if you're the DPS for more than one venue.

It costs £1.49 per staff member per month with every feature included, and it's free for 60 days with no card needed. It helps you keep the records a licensing officer or EHO asks to see; meeting the licence conditions stays with the licence holder and the DPS.