A report on the working of the Licensing Act (2003) by the all-party Select Committee on Culture Media and Sport, presented to Parliament on 14 May 2009, says that music should not be treated as 'a disruptive activity, which will automatically lead to nuisance and disorder'. It recommends that the Government should exempt venues with a capacity of up to 200 people from the need to obtain a licence, and also calls for the old 'two-in-a-bar' exemption to be restored for venues of any size.
The Committee goes on to criticise use by the Metropolitan Police of the much-resented Form 696. This document demands minute details of proposed performances, the names and addresses of those taking part and even the type of music to be featured, 'in the interests of public order and the prevention of terrorism'. These are unreasonable conditions, says the report, and calls for Form 696 to be scrapped.
The entire licensing process, the Committee concludes, is too bureaucratic, time-consuming and complicated and should be made more user-friendly.
This all looks like good news, but we have seen false dawns before. Experience has taught us that what seems self-evidently reasonable to ordinary citizens does not necessarily cut any ice at Westminster. The slightest chink in the wall can let in unimaginable floods of legislative obtuseness.
For instance, what is a 'venue', what is 'capacity' - and what, come to that, are 'people'? Is a 'venue' a room in a pub, or the whole pub, or the entire building in which the pub may be housed? By what formula is 'capacity' to be determined? And does that capacity include everyone, even the staff, the performers and those queueing on the stairs for admission? Don't laugh.
The fact that this particular group of MPs came up with some sensible comments doesn't guarantee that another lot - or some demented senior civil servant - won't contrive to make things even worse.
Just bear in mind - the whole horror story of the Licensing Act and live music started with everyone agreeing that two-in-a-bar had to go, and innocently trusting our legislators to do something sensible about it. |
