A liquor accord is a written document that sets out specific aims, actions, objectives and strategies addressing local alcohol-related problems
Liquor accords are established under Part 8, Division 6 of the Liquor Control Reform Act 1998.
Approval process
A Victoria Police Licensing Inspector and Liquor Control Victoria (LCV) must approve a Liquor Accord document.
To request an LCV approval please email the following to lcv.education@justice.vic.gov.au:
- Draft accord document based on the below template. This will ensure approval process is seamless. If you choose to create your own accord, the following needs to be included as a minimum:
- author, version number, expiry date
- table of contents
- LCV accord banning guidelines (must be included even if not banning patrons)
- list of proposed members.
- Licensing Inspector's signed approval. This can be via email, containing the following text:
I [name of the inspector] Licensing Inspector of [name of the xxxx] have read and approve the draft [name of the accord] Liquor Accord.
[Signature block]
Allow up to 4 weeks for amendments to the document and requests for further information.
Once approved, you will receive a confirmation email and copy of the final approved accord.
Banning under a liquor accord
Members of a liquor accord may decide to ban a problem patron from their venues. The accord should only introduce bans to minimise harm from the behaviour arising from the misuse and abuse of alcohol. The behaviour must have occurred in and around licensed venues.
Using a template to record incidents helps with consistency of information.
Any banning issued under a liquor accord must be limited to 12 months.
To ban a patron, members must develop separate banning policy detailing an agreed banning process including a patron's right to review.
LCV does not approve banning policies and you are not required to submit the policy to us.
Promoting an existence of the banning policy may be a deterrent to inappropriate behaviour. Liquor accord venues may choose to display a notice to patrons signaling they are part of the banning policy.
It is an offence for a person to use or disclose any information received from Liquor Control Victoria (LCV) or Victoria Police regarding banned persons, except for the purposes of enforcing a liquor accord ban. Any breach can amount to an offence carrying a maximum penalty of 60 penalty units.
Notifying a banned person
Notification of a ban must be issued in writing and must include:
- the details of the ban including a list of venues where the ban is enforced and the ban period (start and end date)
- that the ban will be enforced by all applicable venues in the liquor accord for the agreed period
- that the individual has the right to request a review of the ban.
Multiple liquor accord banning policy
Multiple liquor accords exist in regional areas that are near each other. These accords may wish to ban patrons across all member venues.
To do this, the multiple accords would need to merge. Members will need to sign up to one new accord. This new accord would then have its own banning policy, allowing banning of patrons from all member venues.
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