Licensing Hours Extensions Bill: HL Bill 119 of 2024–25

Approximate time to read: 7 minutes

The Licensing Hours Extensions Bill is a private member’s bill which was introduced in the House of Commons by Andrew Ranger (Labour MP for Wrexham) on 16 October 2024. The bill completed its stages in the Commons on 4 July 2025. It is being sponsored in the House of Lords by Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour). The bill is scheduled to have its second reading on 24 October 2025. The government supports the bill, with the Home Office providing explanatory notes.

The bill would amend the Licensing Act 2003 so that licensing orders to allow a temporary extension to licensing hours could be made by the secretary of state by statutory instrument subject to the negative procedure, rather than requiring the affirmative parliamentary procedure.

It had cross-party support in the House of Commons and no amendments to the bill were tabled during its Commons stages.

A previous iteration of the bill had been introduced as a private member’s bill by Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour MP for South Shields) in the 2023–24 parliamentary session. It completed its parliamentary stages in the House of Commons. However, it did not have its second reading in the House of Lords before Parliament was dissolved for the 2024 general election.