Licensing Hours Extensions Act 2026

Commons bill Private Members' Bill (Ballot) 2025-26 Act of Parliament

A Private Members' Bill introduced through the annual ballot, which gives backbench MPs a chance to secure Friday debate time. Ballot bills are the only PMBs with a realistic prospect of becoming law without government support.

Sponsor

Andrew Ranger

+ 1 co-sponsor

Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour)

Introduced

16 October 2024

Royal Assent

12 February 2026

Parliament

View on Parliament ↗

About this bill

A Bill to amend the Licensing Act 2003 so that licensing hours Orders can be made by negative resolution statutory instrument.

Parliamentary stages

Stages shown in blue link to the debate transcript. Not sure what these stages mean? How Parliament makes laws →

Commons

✓ First reading 16 Oct 2024

✓ Second reading 17 Jan 2025↗

✓ Committee stage 4 Jun 2025↗

✓ Third reading 4 Jul 2025

Lords

✓ First reading 7 Jul 2025

✓ Second reading 24 Oct 2025

✓ Order Of Commitment Discharged 8 Jan 2026

✓ Third reading 23 Jan 2026

Final stages

✓ Royal Assent 12 Feb 2026

Some stage debates occurred before our Hansard archive begins (May 2025). Links marked ↗ go to Parliament's own Hansard for that date.

Parliamentary information from bills.parliament.uk ↗, licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0. Explanatory Notes extracts are verbatim from Parliament's published documents.

What this bill is about

From the Explanatory Notes (July 2025):

2 The Licensing Act 2003 (‘the Act’) already makes provision for the Secretary of State to make an order for a relaxation of licensing hours for "an occasion of exceptional international, national, or local significance". 3 This power has been exercised in recent years to mark the Coronation of His Majesty the King, the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the 2011 and 2018 Royal Weddings, the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the Euro 2020 final and Euro 2024 semi-final and final. 4 The Act specifies that when the Secretary of State makes such an order, it is subject to the affirmative resolution procedure wh…

Read the full Explanatory Notes ↗