Clause 63 - Determining whether a club is established
Licensing Bill [Lords]
Public Bill Committees, 29 April 2003, 3:00 pm
Mr Mark Hoban (Fareham, Conservative)
I am grateful to the Minister for his reply on those amendments. On his response to amendment No. 318, I can understand his argument about one person who may have used unscrupulous methods to acquire the right to supply alcohol to a club. However, if that is one extreme of the scale, compared with having completely free arrangements for the supply of alcohol, I am not sure where on that scale some of the existing arrangements with brewers sit. How concerned should a licensing authority be about the nature of tied, or close, arrangements between a brewer and a club?
Perhaps licensing authorities need to be provided with some more guidance on how to analyse such relationships to see whether an agreement to buy a certain amount of beer per year, for example, is a legitimate commercial arrangement that serves the interests of the club and its members, or whether it precludes them from benefiting and creates an unpleasant or difficult relationship between the brewery and the club. Perhaps some guidance needs to be issued to licensing authorities to help them to decide. On that basis, and subject to the reservation
mentioned, I shall be happy to withdraw amendment No. 318.
On amendment No. 303, the Minister raised a concern about the use of premises for what amounted to the sale of alcohol to the public. However, the condition in clause 62 would prevent easy sale of alcohol to the public, because there is a two-day period between people applying to join a club and being able to buy alcohol there. That will slow down the process and make it more difficult for premises to be used simply for the sale of alcohol to members of the public who come in from the streets to take advantage of some of the benefits that clubs may offer. Having said that, I understand the point that the Minister made about control of premises, but at a time when we are encouraging more public involvement in the licensing process, I wonder whether some of those arguments may be used to prevent the granting of a licence to new clubs.
I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.