Self-monitoring of serving of alcoholic beverages and personnel

The holder of an alcohol serving licence must have a self-monitoring plan in place. The plan is a useful tool for everyday activities, as it helps to identify the risks and obligations of the operations. In addition, the licensed premises must be adequately staffed to ensure proper supervision and order.

The self-monitoring plan ensures compliance with the legislation on serving of alcohol.

The licence holder or licence applicant must draw up a site-specific self-monitoring plan. The self-monitoring plan describes the risks, problems or threats associated with the serving and retail sale of alcoholic beverages at the licenced premises or in its surroundings.

In the self-monitoring plan, you will record the rules for your premises, including

how risk management and prevention are realised
how compliance with the law is monitored
how any deficiencies identified will be rectified.

Keep the self-monitoring plan at the disposal of personnel and authorities. The self-monitoring plan may also be in electronic format.

A self-monitoring plan is a useful tool

Self-monitoring helps to identify the special characteristics of the licenced premises in question. When the self-monitoring plan includes the “house rules”, it is a useful tool that guides everyday activities.

Self-monitoring requires responsibility but also provides an opportunity to plan and decide on measures to ensure compliance with the law.

Content of a self-monitoring plan for serving alcohol

It is advisable to use the Finnish Supervisory Agency’s form template when preparing a self-monitoring plan. The template can be found at the end of this page. The self-monitoring plan must be prepared with accurate information, and all information requested in the form must be recorded in it. This ensures that the self-monitoring plan is sufficient and contains all the information needed for self-monitoring.

Legislation requires that the self-monitoring plan for serving alcohol must contain the following information:

details of the licence holder
information on the licenced premises
the date on which the self-monitoring plan was prepared and the date on which it was approved by the licence holder
information on the persons appointed by the licence holder who are responsible for reporting changes,
managing and submitting notifications and data to the Finnish Supervisory Agency,
and on the general implementation of and compliance with the self-monitoring plan and
how personnel competence is ensured
how records on training and competence records are kept
how the licence holder and the persons responsible for the self-monitoring plan supervise compliance with the self-monitoring plan and orders issued to the personnel
a description of the storage of alcoholic beverages and their storage facilities
a description of the duties of the responsible manager and other personnel and the number of personnel
a plan for monitoring alcohol sales
a plan for maintaining public order
a description of the operating concept for the licensed premises and, if necessary, the monitoring priorities and risks related to the location of the licensed premises
a description of the organisation of retail sale activities and cashier and sales arrangements if alcoholic beverages are also sold from the licensed premises
the maximum amount of credit determined by the licence holder and the monitoring and operating practices if alcoholic beverages are sold to the consumer as a debt other than with general credit cards, a payment app or in connection with a programme service or accommodation.
the maximum servings of alcohol that the licence holder has determined can be sold to one client at a time if the permitted single serving exceeds four centilitres
if the serving of alcohol is continued during the extended licensing hours, information on how the number of customers is monitored, how security stewardship is organised and what tasks have been assigned to security stewards.

Information to be recorded at the place of business

From the point of view of monitoring, it makes quite a difference whether the location is a 100-seat pub at the street level of an apartment block, where live music is performed regularly and alcohol is served until 03:00 in the morning or it is a family restaurant in a sparsely populated area, which is housed in a separate building and closes its doors at 22:00.

The self-monitoring plan must generally describe matters related to the licenced premises, such as

what kind of space they are located in
what is its operating concept
what kind of customer base are the licenced premises targeting

Issues to consider in the self-monitoring plan:

Are there residential properties nearby and can serving of alcohol or its retail sale disturb residents in the neighbouring area?
Is there a day-care centre, school, or sports facility nearby, for example?
Is the point of sale located in a busy area?
Are sales more focused on evening hours?
What other factors related to the location affect customers and their purchasing behaviour?

Once the aforementioned issues have been considered, it is easier to identify the potential risks related to the licenced premises and to consider the priorities for monitoring.

Update of the self-monitoring plan

The self-monitoring plan must be updated whenever the operations change. The Finnish Supervisory Agency must be notified of any substantial changes. Such changes include changes to the licensed areas of the premises or an event organised at the premises for which a change to a valid license is required.

The self-monitoring plan must always be updated on a case-by-case basis if serving alcohol is organised at different events.

Consideration of staff in the self-monitoring plan

The number of personnel and their tasks are recorded in the self-monitoring plan. The plan also details who are responsible for serving alcohol and who are their substitutes.

The personnel must be familiar with the obligations imposed on them in the Alcohol Act and the self-monitoring plan. The licence holder, on the other hand, is responsible for the competence of the personnel. For this reason, the self-monitoring plan must describe how competence is ensured and how information on training and competence is recorded and stored.

The personnel must be familiarised with the contents of the self-monitoring plan. The plan can be utilised when teaching new employees workplace-specific practices in serving alcohol.

Personnel at the licensed premises

The licence holder is responsible for ensuring that each shift has a sufficient number of staff and that the staff are familiar with the obligations laid down in the Alcohol Act and in the self-monitoring plan.

There must be enough personnel to effectively supervise serving alcohol and enforce public order at the licensed premises. The number of personnel is affected by factors such as

the type of premises (e.g. pub, nightclub, or restaurant)
how many customer seats there are
what kind of licensed areas there are
whether there are minors in the area.

As a rule, a person under the age of 18 may not sell or serve alcoholic beverages. A minor cannot act as a responsible manager either. A person aged 16 may only sell alcoholic beverages under the supervision of an adult manager. Employees under 16 years of age may accept orders containing alcoholic beverages but may not sell, dispense, or serve alcoholic beverages to customers.

How do I maintain public order?

As the licence holder, you along with your staff are responsible for supervising your premises and maintaining order. A customer must be removed from the licensed premises for the following reasons:

they are clearly intoxicated
they are behaving disruptively
they have violated a prohibition issued by staff.

If serving is continued after 01.30, it is your responsibility to ensure that there is one security steward on the licensed premises for each 100 customers or part thereof. The task of the security steward is to enforce order and security at the licensed premises and in its immediate vicinity. Public order must be maintained until the consumption of alcoholic beverages ends.

Legislation

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Contact information

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