Clause 7 - Licensing committees
Licensing Bill [Lords]
3:00 pm
Mr Mark Field (Cities of London and Westminster, Conservative)
I entirely endorse the comments of my hon. Friend. He hit the nail on the head when he said that we would enter uncharted waters with the transitional arrangements. That applies not only to the city of Westminster, although it will be the most acute case, given the number of licensed premises. The Bill proposes a six-month transition period. There is a real risk of a chaotic effect on licensing if the period is too short.
In so far as there is permission for non-determination, there is an assumption for the conversion of a licence that a two-month gap between an application and non-determination will mean that the licensee will be given authority to proceed on the previous terms. However, for the variation of a licence, the two-month delay will result in an automatic rejection of the variation proposal.
Therefore, it is clear that if the transition period is to be short, there must be far more flexibility in clause 7 to ensure that licensing committees can be larger. Although everyone may have grand plans for the transition arrangements, the practical reality is that many applications will come through in the last few days—that is as inevitable as night following day. There will be a massive rush and the risk of a somewhat chaotic state of affairs.