Another Look At The Licensing Act

Even as Lord Clement-Jones’s Live Music Bill makes steady progress through the House Of Lords, the UK government has launched another consultation into the 2003 Licensing Act.

The Liberal peer’s bill could make smaller live music venues exempt from the 8-year-old legislation. However, the department for culture, media and sport appears to want to look at how other activities – such as screening films, staging indoor sporting events, and certain theatrical performances – could also be spared from complying with the current legislation.

This wider look at the 2003 Act has been sparked by tourism minister John Penrose, a long-term critic of the way it’s impacted pub gigs holding up to a couple of hundred people.