Clause 62 - The general conditions
Licensing Bill [Lords]
2:30 pm
Mr Malcolm Moss (North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
There is a little confusion owing to of the number of amendments that were tabled over Easter. We have tabled a range of amendments that refer to different hours, days and weeks and I will try to make some sense of them.
Essentially, these are probing amendments. We want to elicit the Government's reasons behind some of the periods of time that appear in clause 62. It is my understanding that the interval of two days is lifted from the Licensing Act 1964: presumably, that has worked reasonably well. One of our amendments changes that interval to 48 hours because in some circumstances two days might not give the appropriate authority sufficient time—for example, if the application came towards the end of a day. The amendment changes two days to 48 working hours, which should enable the necessary work to be completed properly.
Amendment No. 203 inserts the following phrase after ''club'' in line 12:
''unless the right to become members without prior nomination or application is thereby completely excluded.''
That is a form of words that seeks to make some sense of this subsection, which refers to ''Condition 2''. I think that that is lifted from the 1964 Act. It gives rise to a strange interpretation in club rules around the country. The original legislation is unclear, and we do not think that the new wording in subsection (3) makes it clearer for those who run these clubs and have to set down their rules and regulations. Amendment No. 203 seeks to clarify and simplify the meaning and wording of the provision, while maintaining the prevention of instant membership to a club to partake of a drink, which is the reason for the two-day delay. This amendment would prevent the need for fairly incomprehensible sentiments being incorporated into a club's constitution. It would lead to a slightly
elongated subsection, but at least it would provide greater clarification of what is intended.
Amendment No. 302 probes why two days cannot be extended to four days, if the reason is to prohibit anyone from quickly joining a club to enjoy the benefits of its alcohol licence.