Clause 90 - Fees
Licensing Bill [Lords]
6:45 pm
Mr Malcolm Moss (North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
These are important amendments. One of the most unsatisfactory results of timetabling is that Committee members can never time their run to reach the more important amendments within the allotted time.
Amendment No. 328 sets out regulations prescribing fees for voluntary sports clubs. Proposed new subsection (6) defines what we mean by voluntary
sports clubs and amendments Nos. 329 and 330 are consequential amendments to clause 172. The Government have not consulted all the groups and organisations in the sports world that they should have done on the impact of the legislation. Under the new legislation, non-profit-making sports clubs throughout the country will be liable to pay what to many will be unaffordable fees to obtain an entertainment licence.
Under the current law, non-profit-making sports clubs pay about £15 every three years to obtain a basic alcohol licence. Although not all of those clubs can provide bar facilities, for those that can it is an effective way to complement the fundraising necessary to maintain the club, and it can be used as a social facility on match days and sporting occasions. For those clubs that do not have facilities but might want to provide for certain events, the hassle of obtaining a licence, as well as the increase in costs, might make that an unfeasible endeavour.
The amendments would ensure that the Government continue to protect the small, non-profit-making sports clubs by maintaining the current fee for obtaining a licence and not imposing an increase of about 50 times the cost of a licence for such bodies. In addition, we seek assurances from the Government that clubs will continue to be exempt from requiring an entertainment licence. As we well know, these clubs are run by volunteers whose continuing efforts and hard work ought to be recognised by the Government and in particular the Department for Culture, Media and Sport—the very architects and instigators of the legislation.