Author: Sal
Government Response To Licensing Act Petition
Tuesday, 3rd July, 2007 at 5:24 pm, Isle of Wight
You might remember the piece I put up piece back in March about a government move to make it harder to play live music in pubs, at charity events or at the school fayre.
I signed the petition and this is the response I received by email yesterday ….
The Government recognises the vital role that live music and dance play in our national life and wants to see it expanded not reduced. So there is absolutely no intention of restricting performances through unnecessary licensing regulations. But it is also the case, of course, that some live performances can impact on the wider community, not least through noise, public safety or nuisance to local residents.
So the aim of the Licensing Act was to streamline the system which had grown up over many years, reducing unnecessary burdens but giving local communities a greater say in the licensing decisions that affect them. The Act, for example, has removed the need to apply for several different permits to put on events and enabled more venues to put on performances.Overall the evidence so far does not suggest that the Licensing Act has had a negative impact on the amount of live music. Research for the Department for Culture, Music and Sport (new window) into the impact of the new rules on smaller venues found that twice as many found the licensing process easy as difficult. It also highlighted the fact that bureaucracy and expense were only rarely mentioned as reasons for not applying licences.
But the Government does accept that some venues feel unnecessarily constrained by restrictive conditions. While those that have stopped hosting live music have generally been balanced by the emergence of new venues, we do recognise that the loss of an established venue can have an impact on individual musicians and music fans.
It is in response to these concerns that DCMS has already set out areas where it thinks changes might be made to reduce further administrative burdens. The Government also set up the Live Music Forum in 2004 to monitor the impact of the Licensing Act and to recommend how government might better promote live performances. We expect to receive the Forum’s findings and recommendations in the Summer and will look closely to see if action is needed.
No surprise there then!
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Perhaps a petition should be started asking the government to accept responsibility for itself and it’s departments & agents.
The link for the department of Culture dealing with the Licensing Act 2003, includes:
“No responsibility is accepted by the Secretary of State for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport or the Department for Culture, Media and Sport for any errors, omissions or misleading statements on these pages, or any site to which these pages connect. In particular, it must be noted that, although the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has made every effort to ensure that the information in these pages is correct, changes in the law and the nature of implementation mean that the information in these pages cannot be guaranteed as accurate.”
Thus we must assume the interpretation of local government as directed by central government to be correct. BUT Andrew Turner can soon expect a visit and shown how local (central) government is guilty of discrimination on religious grounds! The Licensing Act is nothing but an indirect taxation!
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