New clause 3 - Revocation of registration of designated premises supervisor
Licensing Bill [Lords]
4:00 pm
Mr Malcolm Moss (North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
That the Minister will listen to the report that comes from the meeting is all that we can expect. All those people cannot be wrong. Whom has the Minister prayed in aid to support his argument? Where are the legions of people who say that the clause must not be amended? Nobody has written to me saying, ''I demand that designated premises licence holders should be as described in the Bill.'' All of the lobbying and representation that my hon. Friends and I have received has come from people saying, ''This is nonsense. We want to go back to what is in the White Paper''.
We will make no further progress today. That is obvious from the Minister's defence of the position that he read out so well from the brief that he was given. He has been told not to give an inch and those
of us experienced in these matters know that that is the case this afternoon. However, we will certainly return to the subject and we wish the hon. Member for Selby and those people meeting in Manchester success in their negotiations.
Hopefully, common sense will prevail in the end because there is a problem. Many people are exercised about it and the Minister and his team should respond positively to it. Our amendments may not sort it out to their satisfaction. That is fine, but that does not mean that they have to defend what everyone else agrees is inadequate. We promise to return to the issue at a later stage, but at this juncture we wish Godspeed to the hon. Member for Selby and his meeting and I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Clause 16 ordered to stand part of the Bill.