Schedule 1 - Provision of regulated amendments
Licensing Bill [Lords]
4:00 pm
Mr Nick Harvey (North Devon, Liberal Democrat)
Government amendments Nos. 2 and 3 reformulate in an acceptable way what those in the other place thought they were achieving with their amendments. My noble Friend Lord Redesdale tabled the relevant amendment in the other place. Amendments Nos. 2 and 3 do the job rather more straightforwardly than the formula that came from there.
The hon. Member for North-East Cambridgeshire has cut to the key point: the definition of ''incidental''. I was disappointed to hear the Minister say that in his view anything that was advertised would cease to be incidental. I can see that if there was a charge for the entertainment, it could no longer be said to be incidental, but it is part of the character of a pub to have live music. The pub that I go to at Sunday lunchtime frequently has a quiet jazz performance going on in the corner. Some people may know that this generally occurs on a Sunday, but others may simply wander in and find it there as a bonus.
If a pub establishes a tradition, or lets it be known that it has live music at a certain time, it will no longer be deemed to be offering something that is incidental to its primary activities of selling alcohol and food and so forth. This will not prove to be anything like the concession or breakthrough that their lordships in
another place and members of the Musicians Union and others outside thought it would be.
It may be the case that the Government are going as far as they can in offering a lay interpretation of ''incidental'', and that only case law will nail that down, if things come to that. However, I am disappointed by the suggestion that everything that is advertised ceases to be incidental, and I hope that that will not be what happens in practice.