Clause 98 - Temporary event notice
Licensing Bill [Lords]
9:45 am
Mr Nick Harvey (North Devon, Liberal Democrat)
The clauses in question replace the Licensing (Occasional Permissions) Act 1983, which was brought in because of the inadequacies of the Licensing Act 1964 in dealing with temporary events. The 1983 Act has worked well. I am sorry to say that the clauses will in practice prove to be more restrictive than the 1983 Act. That is a pity when the Government say—and they sincerely intend this to be the case—that the Bill is liberalising and will give us a more permissive regime. Unless we can effect some of the amendments, we will end up with something considerably more draconian
than the existing legislation. Many events that currently take place on a semi-regular basis are perfectly permissible under the existing law, but will fall the wrong side of the law as drafted in the Bill.
One of my particular concerns is the number of hours. I understand that in proposing a limit of 72 hours the Government intended to accommodate long-weekend events—but would 72 hours do that? For example, often a beer tent at an event will open on Friday and carry on right through the weekend and into the bank holiday Monday evening. That exceeds 72 hours—albeit not by very much—so that sort of event will fall the wrong side of a 72-hour limit. I accept that wherever a line is drawn it will be a bit arbitrary and there will be things that fall the wrong side of it, but my object is to persuade the Minister that in drawing his line at 72 hours, he has drawn it just a little too tightly.
There are two relevant amendments. Mine suggests extending the 72 hours to 120 hours. The other amendment, in the name of the hon. Member for North-East Cambridgeshire, who will no doubt speak to it, suggests 96 hours. The Conservatives initially tabled an amendment specifying 168 hours. They have trimmed that back to 96 hours, or from seven days to four days. I am sure that that was done in an attempt to be reasonable and to entice the Minister to agree that the line should be drawn just a little beyond the 72 hours.
If the matter is considered constructively, the Minister, being a reasonable man, may be persuaded to move the line a little. Many events—for example, carnival weeks, music festivals, one-off shows and so on—may fall on the wrong side, and my suggestion of five days or the alternative suggestion of four days, would allow many events that have taken place under the 1983 Act to continue. Drawing the line at 72 hours is too tight and will prevent such events from taking place. I urge the Minister to think about that. The amendments are constructive; we are trying to find a slightly more lenient limit.
Amendment No. 340, in the name of the hon. Member for North-East Cambridgeshire, concerns the limit of 500 people participating. That is new and, as I understand it, could cause problems in practice. Presumably, the limit relates to 500 people at any one time. If a festival lasts for a few days and a beer tent is running, clearly it is possible that more than 500 people will attend. Equally, if the beer tent is tangential to the principal event—the hon. Member for Isle of Wight (Mr. Turner) touched on this point—it would be difficult for those running the beer tent to have the slightest idea of how many people would use it, either at any one time or in toto.
I also want the Minister to tell us whether the 500 people include the event staff. If a beer festival attracts 500 people, it will have a large staff—perhaps 30 or even 50—working in shifts and relays. Will they be included in the 500, and how will the number be policed?