Most Popular FAQ items

The forms developed for authorities by businesslink.gov.uk will cater to both applications with a fee and applications without a fee. Authorities will be able to indicate whether an application has a fee and the amount during the formality localisation steps.

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No.

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Yes. The application is not complete unless the fee is paid although the authority must notify the applicant as soon as possible why the application has been rejected.

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No. If you are charging a fee for an application you must request this at the point of application. However, you can charge a nominal application fee (clearly stating it is only part of the fee) and request further payment at a later stage of the application process.

Example: If your fee is more than someone would be expected to pay on a credit card, an authority can request a small fee up front and then ask for the rest of the fee to be paid through bank transfer.

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An authority must be able to accept an application submitted electronically. This includes the form, fee and any attachments. If a service provider opts to post forms, despite being given the opportunity to submit electronically, that would still be acceptable but the choice lies with the service provider not the local authority.

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The list of formalities is published on the BIS website.

List of formalities within the Services Directive

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Generally the authority will have its own appeal process as a first step.

The PSC will provide information on the means of redress available to a service provider in the event of a dispute with a competent authority.

If a service provider believes that a particular local authority has not interpreted the Directive correctly, they may also wish to seek legal advice as to whether there is any redress via the Courts.

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Local authorities are allowed to recover enforcement costs only from those service providers they enforce. For example, Westminster Council requires the application and enforcement fee to be paid at the outset for applications for licensable sex establishments and, for every unsuccessful application, the enforcement element of the fee that has been paid is returned.

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Yes, as long as you ensure all applicant pay the same charge when using the same card type.

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The basic rule is that a service is within scope of the Directive unless it is explicitly excluded from it. The following is the list of services excluded from the Directive:

1. Financial services, such as banking, credit, insurance and re-insurance, occupational and personal pensions, securities, investment funds, payment and investment advice, including the business of credit institution.
2. Electronic communications services and networks, and associated facilities and networks as defined in five Directives on electronic communications and related matters in five 2002 Directives. These Directives were largely implemented in the UK by the Communications Act 2003. Such services and networks include, for example, voice telephony and electronic mail services.
3. Services in the field of transport including air transport, maritime and inland waterways transport, including port services, as well as road and rail transport, in particular urban transport, taxis and ambulances.
   Examples of services which are not covered by this exclusion are removal services, car rental services, funeral services and aerial photography services. Neither does the exclusion cover commercial activities in ports such as shops and restaurants.
4. Services of temporary work agencies. The HMG view is that this covers only the hiring out and placement of workers in temporary work, and does not cover other services provided by the same agency. BIS considers that “temporary work agency” should be defined as set out in the Employment Agencies Act 1973, section 13(3).
5. Healthcare services. This exclusion covers healthcare and pharmaceutical services provided by health professionals to patients to assess, maintain or restore their state of health where those activities are reserved to a regulated health professional in the Member State in which the services are provided.
6. Audiovisual services, including cinemas and broadcast services but not, in HMG’s view, storage of celluloid material for which a licence is currently required.
7. Gambling services, which involve wagering a stake for monetary value in a game of chance, including lotteries, gambling in casinos and betting transactions.
8. The exercise of official authority as set out on Article 45 of the Treaty.
9. Social services relating to social housing, childcare and the support of families in need, where these are provided by the State, by providers mandated by the State or by charities recognised as such by the State. The HMG view is that services provided on a charitable basis by Registered Social landlords are out of scope of the Directive. Services provided on a commercial basis by charitable organisations or their trading subsidiaries are, however, in scope of the Directive.
10. Private security services.
11. Services provided by notaries and bailiffs appointed by an Act of Parliament.

Services of a general economic interest (such as the Post Office), non-economic services of a general interest and taxation are also excluded from the Directive.

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The online forms do not lend themselves to be printed without being filled in, as they all include questions which hide/reveal further questions depending on the answer (e.g. reveal a new set of boxes to include a joint applicant).

Users of the PSC forms service who wish (for instance perhaps because they have paper attachments or do not wish to pay online) can complete the form electronically and print it out once completed to send it by post.

Under the Directive, you may offer downloadable forms to be filled in manually but you MUST at least offer a fully electronic application channel. If you want to offer forms to be printed and filled in by hand, you can design them based on the forms provided on http://elmsportal.businesslink.gov.uk/news/show/22. The form for printing and filling by hand should ask all the questions of the electronic form, including the hidden ones.

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The ELMS forms service will send an email to a nominated email address telling you about the application. You can nominate different addresses for different departments and you will have some control over the frequency of messages. You are obliged to process applications through the PSC, so it is good practice to periodically log-in and check for applications if no emails are received.

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Check the characters match, for example I is a capital i and not a lower case l.

If you are still having problems please check the Known Issues in case there is a known bug in the system. If you are still unable to login using your Known Facts please complete the Feedback Form selecting the Topic 'Known Facts'.

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"The Directive applies to legislation and practices at both national and local level, which would include local Approved Trader Schemes."

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All known facts were sent by recorded delivery marked for the attention of the PLP.  Please check with your reception or post room to find out who signed for the letter.

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Authorities that use Civica for payments will need to configure the IP addresses below in their firewalls to enable the QueryPayment Web Service to work.

These are IP addresses for our proxy servers and this will ensure that only these servers are allowed to call the QueryPayment Web Service for payment verification.

• For Live: 213.121.128.128/27 217.36.189.64/27
• For Reference/Test:  217.36.189.64/27 217.34.172.112/28 217.34.187.176/28 81.142.209.97

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If you are having trouble generating links that direct you to the correct formality page, please use the Formality List Spreadsheet to find the correct URLs.

These links can be used to access formalities when testing payment in the Live environment, and also be added to your authority website to link the formality PIP/introductory pages.

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