# Is there an API for UK premises licences?

> Is there one API for premises licences across UK councils?

Not from government: under [section 8 of the Licensing Act 2003](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/17/section/8) each licensing authority keeps its own register of premises licences and club premises certificates, and must make it available for inspection, but there is no central register or API; a few councils publish theirs as open data, each in its own layout. The Olympus UK Premises Licensing API serves the open registers of Birmingham, Camden, Leicester and York in one schema: `GET /v1/uk-premises-licensing/licences` searches by council, postcode, premises name, licensable activity, status and holder company number, and shows the licence holder only when it is an organisation.

## The official route, and what it lacks

Section 8 says: "Each licensing authority must keep a register containing a record of each premises licence, club premises certificate and personal licence issued by it" and of each temporary event notice it receives, and must make the register "available for inspection (in a legible form) by any person during office hours and without payment". The duty is on each authority, so:

- there is one register per licensing authority, usually searched through the council's own licensing portal, one licence at a time;
- only some councils publish the register as an open data file, and columns, statuses and activity wording differ from council to council;
- the registers also name individuals (designated premises supervisors, personal licence holders, sole-trader holders), which a reuser has to keep out.

## What the UK Premises Licensing API serves

Licensing Act 2003 premises licences and club premises certificates from council licensing registers in one schema: premises, licensable activities, hours, status and dates, and the licence holder only when it is an organisation, with the source row behind every value.

### Limits

- The licence holder is shown only when it is an organisation (a printed Companies House number, a legal-form suffix such as Ltd or PLC, or a body that is never a person); anything else is withheld with a reason, and the rule is strict, so some organisations are withheld too.
- Many holders are withheld: in the launch load about a third of Camden's printed holders and over half of Leicester's (Leicester prints individuals as "SURNAME Forenames"); Birmingham and York publish no holder. Coverage gives the counts published, withheld (by reason) and not in source.
- Premises that look like private dwellings with no organisation holder are excluded and counted in coverage.
- Values are as the council publishes them: statuses, activities and hours as printed (with normalised forms alongside); conditions only where a council publishes them as a field.

**Not included:** councils other than Birmingham, Camden, Leicester and York; designated premises supervisors; personal licences; temporary event notices; individuals' names, holders' home or correspondence addresses, phone numbers or e-mail addresses; gambling, street trading, sex establishment and other licensing regimes; Scotland (Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005), Wales and Northern Ireland.

At launch (30 October 2026) the API served 8,197 licences: Birmingham 3,643, Camden 2,030, Leicester 1,459 and York 1,061. Birmingham and York publish no holder, so their licences have `holder.status` `not_in_source`.

## Example request and response

Current Camden premises licences that permit the sale of alcohol:

Request:

```sh
curl -s "https://api.olympus.new-odyssey.com/v1/uk-premises-licensing/licences?council=E09000007&activity=sale_of_alcohol&status=current&limit=1" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $OLYMPUS_API_KEY"
```

200 OK (abridged):

```json
{
  "data": [
    {
      "licence_id": "…",
      "council": { "code": "E09000007", "name": "Camden" },
      "source_kind": "file",
      "licence_ref": "…",
      "licence_type": "premises_licence",
      "licence_type_as_published": "…",
      "status": "current",
      "status_as_published": "…",
      "premises": { "name": "…", "address": "…", "postcode": "…", "uprn": null },
      "activities": ["sale_of_alcohol", "…"],
      "activities_as_published": "…",
      "permitted_hours": "…",
      "opening_hours": "…",
      "granted_date": "…",
      "variation_date": null,
      "expiry_date": null,
      "conditions_summary": null,
      "holder": { "status": "…", "name": "…", "withheld": …, "withheld_reason": …, "evidence": …, "company_number": null },
      "provenance": { "dataset_id": "…", "source_id": "…", "source_url": "…", "source_version": "…", "record_id": "…" }
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "datasets": [{ "dataset_id": "…", "freshness": "fresh" }],
    "notices": [
      { "code": "as_published", "message": "…" },
      { "code": "organisations_only", "message": "…" }
    ],
    "pagination": { "limit": 1, "has_more": true, "next_cursor": "…" }
  }
}
```

`council` is the council's ONS GSS code (here Camden, `E09000007`). `holder.status` is `published` (an organisation, with `name` and `evidence`), `withheld` (`name` is null and `withheld_reason` says why) or `not_in_source`. `GET /v1/uk-premises-licensing/licences/{licence_id}` adds `field_provenance`: the row and column each value was read from, and the printed text.

## Coverage and refresh

**Coverage:** Only four English councils: Birmingham (E08000025), Camden (E09000007), Leicester (E06000016) and York (E06000014). GET /v1/uk-premises-licensing/coverage lists them; no other council is covered.

- Each council's register as its open data export publishes it (Open Government Licence), as a full snapshot; the data version of each source is in coverage.
- York's layer carries an extract date of 22/10/2024 and is served with that date as is; the council has not refreshed it since.

**Refresh:** Weekly (Thursdays 06:00 America/New_York); a run whose inputs are unchanged publishes nothing. `GET /v1/uk-premises-licensing/coverage` lists exactly what is loaded right now.

## Price

Every Olympus plan includes the UK Premises Licensing API and every other live API. The Free plan (no card) gives 1,000 requests a month to each live API at 10 requests a minute. Paid plans: Developer $79 a month (50,000 requests per API), Growth $299 a month (250,000 requests per API), Business $999 a month (1,000,000 requests per API); Enterprise from $2,500 a month on request. Prices in USD; see [pricing](https://olympus.new-odyssey.com/pricing) for rate limits and what counts as a request.

## Docs

- [UK Premises Licensing API](https://olympus.new-odyssey.com/apis/uk-premises-licensing): what it serves and its endpoints
- [API reference](https://olympus.new-odyssey.com/docs/uk-premises-licensing); OpenAPI contract at `/openapi/uk-premises-licensing.yaml`
- [Coverage and known limits](https://olympus.new-odyssey.com/coverage#uk-premises-licensing)
- [Get a free API key](https://olympus.new-odyssey.com/signup), then send it in the `X-API-Key` header
- From an AI agent: the [MCP server](https://olympus.new-odyssey.com/agents) describes this API's coverage with `get_product_coverage`; data calls go through the REST API

> Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence, as each council's dataset states. Olympus is not affiliated with or endorsed by any council or the UK government.

## Questions

### Is there a national register of premises licences?

No. Each licensing authority keeps its own register under section 8 of the Licensing Act 2003. The Olympus API combines the open registers of the councils it covers and lists them in GET /v1/uk-premises-licensing/coverage.

### Does it show who holds the licence?

Only when the holder is an organisation, such as a company with a legal-form suffix or a printed Companies House number, or a body that is never a person. Any other holder is withheld with a reason, and some councils publish no holder at all.

### Does it include personal licences or temporary event notices?

No. Designated premises supervisors, personal licences and temporary event notices are not included, and neither are other regimes such as gambling or street trading.

### Which councils are covered?

Birmingham, Camden, Leicester and York, from their open data registers. York's register carries an extract date of 22 October 2024 and is served with that date as is.

## Sources

- legislation.gov.uk: [Licensing Act 2003, section 8: requirement to keep a register](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/17/section/8)
- Birmingham City Council: [Licensing public register (City Observatory)](https://www.cityobservatory.birmingham.gov.uk/explore/dataset/licensing-public-register/)
- London Borough of Camden: [Camden Licensing Register](https://opendata.camden.gov.uk/d/rv9z-rsui)
- Leicester City Council: [Licensed premises register](https://data.leicester.gov.uk/explore/dataset/licensed-premises-register/)
- City of York Council: [Premises licences (data.gov.uk)](https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/premises-licences1)

## Related

- [UK Premises Licensing API](https://olympus.new-odyssey.com/apis/uk-premises-licensing)
- [UK Premises Licensing API reference](https://olympus.new-odyssey.com/docs/uk-premises-licensing)
- [Is there an API for UK council spending over £500?](https://olympus.new-odyssey.com/answers/uk-council-spending-api)

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Published 2026-10-30, updated 2026-10-30 by New Odyssey. Canonical: https://olympus.new-odyssey.com/answers/uk-premises-licence-api