Schedule 1 - Provision of regulated entertainment
Licensing Bill [Lords]
10:45 am
Mr Malcolm Moss (North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
I do not know the answer to that question. Perhaps the Minister can enlighten us when he responds.
On amendment No. 53, we understand and accept that boxing and wrestling, as types of entertainment, need licensing. The activities have one thing in common: they are violent forms of entertainment and have given rise to serious public disorder,
sometimes involving mass brawls and serious injuries to people in attendance. Perhaps such things will be more likely in future as we see an increase in audience participation in an active rather than a passive sense, particularly at wrestling events.
We have no problem with the requirement in paragraph 2(1)(d) to license boxing and wrestling. However, we fail to see why other violent—if I may use that category—sporting activities such as kick-boxing, karate, judo, tae kwon do and other so-called martial arts are exempt. The reason may be that there have been few complaints from the public or instances of disorder. Why does that apply in that case, but not in the case of other activities such as music and dance, about which, equally, there are no noise and disorder complaints from the public? If it is a health and safety issue, and if that is not covered by current legislation, all sporting events that are similar to boxing and wrestling should be included.