What is the LCQ test in NZ?
The LCQ — Licence Controller Qualification — is the training and assessment step toward becoming a duty manager on a licensed premises in New Zealand. It covers two NZQA unit standards, 4646 and 16705, and is usually delivered as a single day by an accredited provider. It is not itself the manager's certificate.
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That last sentence is the thing most people get wrong, so it is worth stating plainly before anything else.
The LCQ is a qualification, not a licence
There are two steps and people routinely conflate them.
Step one is the LCQ. You complete a course with an accredited provider and are assessed against two unit standards. Pass, and you hold the qualification.
Step two is the manager's certificate. You apply to your local district licensing committee — the DLC, run through your council. They consider your application, your LCQ, your suitability, and reports from Police and the licensing inspector. They issue the certificate.
You cannot act as a duty manager on the strength of the LCQ alone. Employers sometimes assume otherwise and put someone on the roster who is not yet certificated, which is the licensee's problem rather than the employee's, but it is a problem either way.
The two unit standards
Unit standard 4646 — demonstrate knowledge of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 and its implications for licensed premises. Level 4.
This is the law half. Licence types and what each permits, trading hours, restricted and supervised areas, prohibited persons, evidence of age, signage requirements, and the offence provisions that apply to the licensee, the manager and the individual.
Unit standard 16705 — demonstrate knowledge of host responsibility requirements as a duty manager of licensed premises. Level 4.
This is the practice half. Food and low-alcohol availability, safe transport options, recognising intoxication, intervening early, and refusing service — including how to refuse service to somebody who does not want to be refused.
It is usually open book — and that changes how to prepare, not whether to
Most providers permit the LCQ workbook during assessment.
People hear "open book" and stop preparing. This is a mistake, and a specific one: with an open book, the constraint is no longer recall, it is navigation under time pressure. You are not being asked to remember the maximum national trading hours. You are being asked to recognise, within about a minute, that a scenario is a trading-hours question rather than a special-licence question, and then to find and apply the right provision.
That skill is built by doing questions, not by reading the workbook cover to cover. Somebody who has worked through fifty scenario questions will finish comfortably. Somebody who has read the workbook once and never been asked to apply it will spend the assessment flipping pages.
What the assessment actually asks about
In rough order of how often they come up:
- Prohibited persons. Minors and intoxicated persons. Know the tests, the exceptions (the minor's accompanying-parent exceptions in particular), and where the responsibility sits.
- Duty manager obligations. A certificated manager must be on duty at all times when alcohol is being sold or supplied. The manager's name must be displayed. The register must be kept.
- Restricted versus supervised areas. Different rules on minors and different signage. This is a distinction people confuse under pressure and it is heavily tested.
- Trading hours. The maximum national hours, plus the fact that a local alcohol policy can tighten them and your licence conditions can tighten them further. The answer is rarely "the national maximum".
- Evidence of age. Which documents are acceptable. Not "a driver's licence" in general terms — which specific documents.
- Host responsibility in practice. Free drinking water, food availability, low- and non-alcoholic options, safe transport information, and early intervention.
- Intoxication. Recognising it across speech, coordination, appearance and behaviour, and knowing that the obligation is to intervene before the person is obviously intoxicated, not after.
How to prepare in about three hours
- One hour before your course day. Work through practice questions cold. You will get things wrong. Write down which topics they were.
- The course day itself. You now have a list. Ask your trainer about those specific things rather than sitting through the day hoping it lands.
- One hour after. Practise again, focusing on the topics you missed the first time. If you can now get those right consistently, you are ready.
- Twenty minutes before the assessment. Skim the workbook's contents page and tab it. You want to know where things live, not to re-read them.
Sources and where to check current requirements
Requirements change. Check current details with the source rather than with any practice site, including this one.
Sources
- NZQA — unit standards 4646 and 16705 — for current versions and levels
- Your district licensing committee, via your local council — for manager's certificate applications
- Accredited LCQ providers — ServiceIQ and others — for course dates and delivery formats
Practise before your assessment: AllSorted's LCQ practice test has free practice with no signup, covering alcohol law and host responsibility. Full access is $14.99 for three months. AllSorted writes original questions and is not affiliated with NZQA, ServiceIQ or any training provider.
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Last reviewed: 21 August 2026
Unofficial practice only. AllSorted writes original questions. We are not affiliated with NZQA, ServiceIQ, or any other examining or licensing body. These items are not official exam papers.