Clause 146 - Delegation to licensing committee
Gambling Bill
3:15 pm
Mr Malcolm Moss (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 139, in page 65, line 4, leave out
'established under section 6 of the Licensing Act 2003 (c. 17)'
and insert
'as established by that authority'.
Mr Roger Gale (North Thanet, Conservative)
With this it will be convenient to discuss amendment No. 140, in page 65, line 12, leave out subsections (3) to (5).
Mr Malcolm Moss (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
These are by way of probing amendments to tease out the Government's thinking. Amendment No. 139 would simply delete the reference to the Licensing Act 2003 so that the provision would refer to
''the licensing committee of the authority as established by that authority'',
which is the one that forms the licensing committee.
In amendment No. 140 I am seeking an explanation from the Minister as to why the delegation is organised as proposed in the Bill rather than in some other way. Licensing committees have enough on their plates with the 2003 Act and are already complaining, as the Minister well knows, about the lack of resources for those various jobs. The provision will be an extra burden on them for which they may not receive adequate resources.
Mr Richard Caborn (Minister of State (Sport and Tourism), Department for Culture, Media & Sport; Sheffield Central, Labour)
The clause sets out the responsibilities of licensing authorities and licensing committees. Licensing authorities are permitted to delegate their functions in relation to premises licenses to a committee established under section 6 of the 2003 Act. Subsections (3) to (5) empower a licensing committee to sub-delegate specific functions to individual officers of the licensing authority.
Mr Malcolm Moss (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
There will be serious problems in authorities such as Westminster and Camden in terms of the sheer numbers of licence applications that will have to be considered and processed when the 2003 Act comes into force.
Westminster city council has already made many representations, saying that it does not know how it will cope with the flood of applications. We are now loading yet another burden on the same committee by making it responsible for considering gambling establishments—there will be a large number of those, particularly in inner-city areas, as I have described. We are trying to seek some flexibility so that local authorities can play things internally to the best of their ability without our prescribing in the Bill exactly how they are to do it.
Mr Richard Caborn (Minister of State (Sport and Tourism), Department for Culture, Media & Sport; Sheffield Central, Labour)
I accept that, which is why there have been ongoing discussions about the implementation of the 2003 Act and the Bill. Concern has been expressed about the limit on the number of licensing committee members under section 6 of the 2003 Act and the reproduction of that limit in the Bill.
In some areas licensing committees will have a large volume of cases to hear during the transitional period of the 2003 Act. However, hon. Members should remember that authorities will receive far fewer applications for gambling premises licenses and those will not be received until after that busy transitional period. The appointed day has already been named. The limit on the number of committee members in the Bill will not assist authorities dealing with the volume of licence applications during that transitional period. There is management under both the 2003 Act and the Bill.
Mr Malcolm Moss (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
I am grateful to the Minister for giving way and for his explanation so far. It is interesting to note that he and his officials are taking into account the concern that has been raised already. The Minister is responsible for the 2003 Act in any event; however, there are differences.
To do their job properly in relation to premises licenses, councillors on committees will have to take on board a great deal of information relating to licensing pubs and clubs, and to make the right decisions they will, separately, have to take on board quite a lot of the Bill's contents. That is a considerable overload and, if we are not careful, the two periods may overlap in such a way that the service provided to businesses, which need quick, appropriate decisions, will prove logistically difficult to deliver.
Mr Richard Caborn (Minister of State (Sport and Tourism), Department for Culture, Media & Sport; Sheffield Central, Labour)
Although I have some sympathy with what the hon. Gentleman says—he and I know that there have been concerns about the volume of cases to be considered under the 2003 Act—we must keep such things in proportion. That new regime will be considerable, there is no doubt about that, but we are talking about a much smaller number of licensing cases under the Bill. There is also a power to delegate certain functions to officers of a licensing authority to relieve the committee of the burden of sitting every time a premises licence application is received.
Against that background of considerable delegation to officers, I hope that the hon. Gentleman will withdraw his amendment, because we have adequately covered the needs of local authorities.
Mr Malcolm Moss (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
Yes, I am pleased that the Minister is aware of some of the problems and I agree with him entirely that those are not universal. As I said, the key areas of concern are inner-city areas, such as Westminster and Camden, with huge numbers of pubs and clubs that will have to go through the licensing process under the 2003 Act. Those places will also have the majority of betting, gambling and gaming centres. We are imposing a double load on a small number of key areas—I agree with the Minister on that—and that needs to be thought through carefully. I am grateful to him for his explanation, and I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Clause 146 ordered to stand part of the Bill.
Clause 147 ordered to stand part of the Bill.