Schedule 1 - Provision of regulated entertainment
Licensing Bill [Lords]
8:55 am
Mr Malcolm Moss (North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
Amendment No. 58 is a replica of an amendment that was proposed in the other place. I understand that the Government went some way to meeting its requirements. Paragraph 14 now acknowledges that entertainment in an educational establishment for purposes directly connected with that establishment's activities is not to be regarded as provision of regulated entertainment. If the concession has been allowed for educational establishments, we still query why it is not extended to prisons, hospitals and museums, where the entertainment is incidental to the establishment's activities.
We are well aware that functions are put on in hospitals, and also now in prisons as a means of rehabilitating prisoners, who take part in operas, plays or musical activities. There can surely be no question of such activities causing disturbance or disorder in a prison, with all its rules and regulations. Knowing where prisons are situated, I do not believe that they would cause a noise problem either. I would not have thought that hospitals had huge facilities to hold large entertainment gatherings, and, again, I imagine that in most cases facilities for entertainment in museums and galleries are small, any activities that take place are small scale and related to fundraising.
We tabled the amendment to test again the Government's reasons for not allowing entertainment to take place in those establishments, as they have conceded that educational establishments will be all right. If they are all right, why are the others not all right? Again, there is inconsistency and a lack of logic in the Government's approach. We shall be interested to hear what the Minister says.