Five licensing scenarios to rehearse, from an empty search result to a departing case owner

Risk scenarios make a licensing plan useful when ordinary assumptions fail. Each exercise should begin with a real English activity and fictional case data, then test detection, ownership, containment and recovery. It should not speculate about an unnamed legal change.

What to take away

Scenario 1: the search returns nothing

A team uses the Find a licence service and sees no obvious result. Because the service warns that its catalogue may be incomplete, an empty search cannot be recorded as clearance.

The response is to preserve the terms and location used, consult the responsible official routes and assign the unresolved question. The exercise passes only when the register shows uncertainty rather than "no licence needed".

Scenario 2: the local route changes

A bookmarked council page stops working shortly before submission. Use GOV.UK's postcode council finder to confirm the current authority website, then verify the form, instructions and contact afresh. Do not copy a neighbouring council's process into the gap.

Test whether the case record distinguishes the retired link from the replacement and dates the new check. Escalate if local government reorganisation or another boundary question makes responsibility unclear.

Scenario 3: AI invents a missing fact

A drafting tool completes an absent date or turns a possible requirement into a definite statement. The reviewer compares the output with the source pack, marks the error, corrects the affected text, and records the change in the version log before the output is used externally.

The incident should inform prompt design, training and the decision about whether that task remains suitable.

The Information Commissioner's Office provides guidance for organisations using AI where personal data is involved. The exercise also checks whether the fictional test stayed outside live applicant records.

Scenario 4: a supplier account is unavailable

Access fails on the day an authority response is due. A deputy must recover the submitted version, correspondence, condition set and deadline from an approved export or continuity store. Contact details and authentication recovery should not depend on the absent administrator.

The government's Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025/26 is UK-wide, not a rate for licensing providers.

Scenario 5: the case owner leaves

Remove the usual owner from the exercise without warning the deputy which case matters. The replacement should identify open questions, authority contacts, current status and next action from the record alone. Missing context becomes a named remediation item, not an excuse to guess.

Set the tabletop conditions

Choose a facilitator who is not the case owner and give participants a fixed time window. Reveal one complication at a time, such as a changed link followed by an unavailable account, so the observer can see which control fails first. Keep the activity fictional and avoid contacting a council as part of the exercise.

Collect the records participants actually used. A procedure that exists but cannot be found during the test is not an effective control. Note where people relied on private inboxes, browser history or personal knowledge, then decide which evidence belongs in the shared continuity pack.

For every failure, record how it was detected, potential consequence, temporary control, permanent fix, owner and due date. Rehearse again after remediation. A scenario is not closed because participants discussed it; the changed process must work.

Prioritise cases by consequence and time sensitivity. A broken reminder for a distant internal review differs from loss of evidence before a statutory or authority deadline. Obtain qualified advice when the response depends on rights or obligations that the exercise cannot determine.

Before you act

Common questions

What should happen when a search on the Find a licence service returns nothing?

Preserve the terms and location used, consult the responsible official routes, and assign the unresolved question.

How should a team handle a bookmarked council page that stops working before submission?

Use GOV.UK's postcode council finder to confirm the current authority website, then verify the form, instructions and contact afresh. Do not copy a neighbouring council's process into the gap. Test whether the case record distinguishes the retired link from the replacement and dates the new check.

What makes a tabletop exercise useful for testing a licensing plan?

Choose a facilitator who is not the case owner and set a fixed time window. Keep the activity fictional and avoid contacting a council.