Licence to thrill

Announcing plans for a wholesale deregulation of entertainment licensing and the scrapping of the Licensing Act 2003, England’s Tourism and Heritage Minister John Penrose has declared that he wants to “set a match to all this nonsense, and trust sensible people to act sensibly, with regulation retained only where rightly needed to keep audiences and performances safe”. A consultation paper, ‘Regulated Entertainment’, sets out the Government’s vision for the future of public entertainment licences and proposes getting rid of the requirement for people to “apply and sometimes pay for licences for many events where there is little or no risk of trouble” – school plays, Punch and Judy shows, folk duos in pubs, and brass bands playing in public parks are all given as examples.

The announcement was made under the Government’s ‘Red Tape Challenge’ initiative, which was launched earlier this year and gives the public the chance to have their say on some of the more than 21,000 regulations that affect their everyday lives. Penrose said: “Pointless bureaucracy and licence fees imposed on community groups trying to put on simple amateur productions and fundraising events, sap energy and deaden people’s desire to get involved… [deregulation will] make it easier for new talent to get started and help pubs to diversify into other activities to help weather the present tough economic climate.” The consultation paper looks at all currently licensable activities, including performances of plays, live music and dance; exhibition of films; and public playing of recorded music, and asks the question ‘what would happen if this activity were no longer licensable?’ Penrose explained the Government’s position: “Our starting point is a simple one: if there’s no good reason for any of the rules and restrictions in this important area, our presumption should be to scrap them.” However, there will be no relaxation on the rules controlling gatherings of more than 5,000 people or events classed as sexual entertainment.

The Licensing Act 2003 introduced a single scheme for licensing premises which supply alcohol and provide entertainment, but has provoked controversy among arts professionals from the start, not least because it ended the ‘two in a bar’ licensing exemption, under which two musicians were allowed to perform without a public entertainment licence. A Culture Media and Sport Parliamentary Select Committee report in 2009 recommended that the licensing requirement be waived for venues with a capacity of under 200, and enabled travelling entertainment to acquire a portable licence from their ‘home’ local authority (see AP195), but the new proposals go much further, and arts representatives have been quick to welcome the move to deregulate. Robin Simpson, Chief Executive of Voluntary Arts, described entertainment licensing and similar regulation as having become a major obstacle to amateur arts groups putting on small events, saying that the “complexity and cost of regulation originally intended for much larger-scale events has had a detrimental effect on hundreds of thousands of volunteers.” Christine Payne, General Secretary of Equity, described the proposals as “a visionary solution to a long running problem in the live entertainment sector… it will help to create more opportunities for artists and will enable young performers to get the exposure needed to kickstart their careers”.