Schedule 4
Policing and Crime Bill
2:00 pm
Alan Campbell (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Tynemouth, Labour)
That is a wide-ranging area of discussion. By “responsible,” I am certainly referring to pubs and clubs that do not fall foul of the legislation or the conditions of the licensing committee. Of course, residents will always be concerned, especially when they live near pubs, but a large number of pubs and clubs do run respectable establishments. They do take precautions in order not to add to difficulties and dangers in either their establishment or their locality. I am not sure that I share my hon. Friend’s pessimism or, perhaps, scepticism about the majority of pubs and clubs. We need to ensure that, where we need to take further action and further conditions need to be applied to those pubs that are not respectable, the measures that we take are targeted and proportionate.
If a licensing authority wants to impose general licensing conditions, the Bill requires that it first identify a locality. Once a licensing authority has defined a locality, the Bill could be read as requiring it to impose general licensing conditions on every licensed premises within that locality, irrespective of whether each individual premises was contributing to the problem.
Amendment 42, tabled by my hon. Friend, would make that requirement even more explicit. Clearly, that could result in some businesses having disproportionate and, frankly, unfair burdens imposed on them just because they happen to be in an area that has experienced problems. The Government amendment allows the licensing authority to impose general licensing conditions on particular licensed premises, which are thought to be contributing to those problems.