Clause 88 - Club ceasing to be a qualifying club
Licensing Bill [Lords]
6:45 pm
Mr Malcolm Moss (North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
The amendments deal in the main with police investigations and entry into premises. Amendment No. 336 to clause 88 would leave out ''month'' and insert ''week.'' That is where a justice of the peace is satisfied that there is a problem and has issued a warrant authorising a constable to enter premises. In such a situation, having given a warrant, why allow the constable a month to do the search? A week seems to be much more sensible, bearing in mind that word would get out and all the evidence might have disappeared by the end of the month. The amendment would ensure that the police do the searching that the warrant justifies.
Amendments Nos. 337 and 338 deal with clause 94, under which entry and inspection must take place at a reasonable time of day not more than 14 days after the making of an application. We would change that to 21 days. Subsections (7) and (8) allow a seven-day extension, so one can go from 14 to 21 days in certain circumstances. It therefore seems simpler to allow up to 21 days anyway and remove subsections (7) and (8).