To facilitate the setting up of business, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) implements a provisional licensing system in which a provisional food business licence / provisional KE permit / provisional places of public entertainment licence (cinema/theatre) is issued to premises that have satisfied all essential health, building and fire safety requirements.

Under the existing licensing procedure, applicants are required to wait for the notification from FEHD that their provisional licence applications have been endorsed before they can submit Report of Compliance for the Grant of Provisional Licence enclosed with the required Certificate of Compliance and documents to one of the Licence Issuing Offices of FEHD. Having confirmed the certificates and documents are acceptable and the applicant has paid the licence fee, a provisional licence valid for 6 months will be issued within one working day over the counter.

With effect from 3.4.2017, FEHD will notify applicants by email that their provisional licence applications have been endorsed with provision of dates of letter of requirements in order to facilitate the applicants to complete the required certificates and documents before approaching to Licensing Issuing Offices for submission of documents. If licence applicants wish to receive this email notification, they should provide their email address(es) in the licence application form or provide such information to the case managers (for application under progress) for necessary arrangement.