Clause 99 - Minimum of 24 hours between event periods
Licensing Bill [Lords]
4:45 pm
Mr Nick Harvey (North Devon, Liberal Democrat)
May I ask the Minister for guidance on the meaning of subsection (1)(b)? I presume that the objective of clause 99 is to prevent organisers of an event from doing what the hon. Member for Selby described this morning, and putting back-to-back applications together to get it to run for longer. However, if I understand the subsection correctly, it would prevent two different events held by different organisations from going back-to-back. To come back to the village hall that we have been discussing all day, it seems that if someone were having a 21st birthday party on a Saturday night, it would be impossible for someone else in the village to celebrate their 90th birthday at lunchtime on the Sunday. It would be regrettable to take such a large club to such a small issue; the Government may be using disproportionate control.