Agenda item

House of Lords Select Committee on the Licensing Act 2003

The Licensing Manager tabled a summary of conclusions and recommendations from the House of Lords Select Committee on the Licensing Act 2003. He highlighted that this was intended to be for information only at this stage and that the House of Lords Select Committee was entirely advisory to the House of Commons.

The Licensing Manager drew Members’ attention to the principal proposals that would directly affect this Committee should they be approved. The main proposal related to the merging of Licensing Committees and their functions into Planning Committees. The consideration of any appeals from licensing authorities would also lie with the planning inspectorate as opposed to magistrates’ courts.

The Training of Licensing Committee Members would become obligatory under the new proposals – something that the City had always adopted in practice. The Chairman added that all new Committee Members would receive adequate Licensing training in the near future, shortly after the May Court of Common Council meeting where it was hoped that the remaining two vacancies on the Committee would be filled.

The Chairman went on to highlight further significant changes proposed within the summary – one of these being that Licensing Authorities would also be given the power to object to Temporary Event Notice applications alongside the Police and Environmental Health Officers. A further significant proposal for the City was the suggested abolition of the Late Night Levy.

In response to questions, the Licensing Manager stated that he assumed that the Remembrancer would be monitoring the progress of this matter through Parliament. He undertook to keep the Licensing Committee informed on this.

A Member commented that it was well acknowledged that these proposals were likely to attract a significant number of political representations. She went on to state that she felt that the City already complied with a number of proposals with regard to Member training and Licensing Hearing arrangements. However, she underlined her serious concerns at the proposals to merge Licensing and Planning Committee functions and to abolish the Late Night Levy. She hoped that the City would underline these concerns when invited to make representations.

A Member, also the acting Chairman of the City’s Planning and Transportation Committee, agreed that it would be disastrous to merge Licensing and Planning functions.