Clause 96
Licensing Bill [Lords]
8:55 am
Mr Mark Hoban (Fareham, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 339, in
clause 96, page 55, line 6, at end insert—
'(5) The fourth condition is that the premises are not covered by an existing premises licence or club premises certificate.'.
I welcome you to the Chair, Mr. Benton. I shall first set out why I have tabled amendment No. 339. Some time ago, I met a solicitor from a local firm who was in charge of its licensing practice. That was around the time of the World cup. He was the first solicitor to secure a licence for early opening for England matches so that people could watch those matches in the comfort of their local pub. He recently wrote to me to ask how he could achieve a similar licence for a similar event under the Licensing Bill.
That solicitor had looked at clause 171, which deals with the relaxation of opening hours for special occasions. Such a measure was used recently by the Secretary of State to relax opening hours at new year and, I think, during the golden jubilee. However, that was used for special events of national significance and perhaps might not cover the need to open a pub for longer. When I was discussing the matter, I wondered whether the answer was in the operating statement and whether publicans could set out there those occasions on which they might wish to open for longer than their usual hours, or the number of times a year that they might choose to do so.
With that in mind, I examined part 5 of the Bill, which deals with temporary event notices. That is a lighter-touch regime—it is the Government's stated aim to have better and lighter regulation. Temporary event notices will require no time-consuming public consultation. All that will be needed is to issue the notice to the local licensing authority and to the police. If they object, they can give a counter notice. That will offer an ideal opportunity for a publican to circumvent the need for public scrutiny of longer opening hours. What concerns me is that if a pub landlord decides to open his pub late on five occasions a year—later amendments have been tabled to aim to increase the number of temporary event notices that a premises could have to much more than five—he could cause extreme nuisance to his neighbours and dislocation to local residents by using temporary event notices, which escape public consultation and scrutiny, to achieve his end.
That is why I have tabled amendment No. 339, which says that a licensed premises cannot apply for a temporary event notice. I would like publicans to use the operating statement as a means of ensuring that
when they wish to open for longer on an irregular basis that is considered when the premises licence is applied for. It can then be subject to scrutiny by local residents to ensure that people in the vicinity, who have the right to comment and make representations on the premises licence, can comment on those hours before they are introduced. Pubs could not then circumvent the consultation process by using a temporary event notice.