Clause 1 - Licensable activities and qualifying club activities
Licensing Bill [Lords]
8:55 am
Mr Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight, Conservative)
Yes, I concede that point. I am sure that the new schedule could be improved on. I am trying to establish the principle that it is more important to regulate the gathering and the noise that it generates, than to regulate the entertainment and, therefore, have to define what is and is not an entertainment.
Most activities of this type do not require the elaborate work that is required to establish a lighting rig. For example, if a pop concert is held on a field provided by an agricultural society for the county show, it is covered by the schedule, but if a religious meeting is held in exactly the same place, using exactly the same equipment and involving exactly the same number of people, that is not covered. There is an inconsistency in the Bill—one that in my view is better covered by public nuisance legislation, rather than by regulation of the type of entertainment proposed.